Former Haryana Chief Minister and at present the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday sharply criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party (BJP-JJP) Government, blaming it for failing on all the fronts and bringing the State to a standstill.
“In the past nine years of the rule of BJP Governments in Haryana, inflation has increased by four times and unemployment by three times when compared with the previous Congress regime. Also, the State has been pushed into a debt trap, and crime has gone up sharply. The incumbent government has failed and the State’s development has come to a standstill,” Mr. Hooda said, addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.
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The Congress leader said the government had admitted that the unemployment rate in the State had reached 8.8%. “The unemployment rate, which was 2.9% during the Congress Government in 2013-14, has reached around 9%. The unemployment rate at the national level is 4.1%. This means unemployment in Haryana is more than double the national average,” Mr. Hooda said.
He said around 2.02 lakh government posts were lying vacant in government departments, but the government was turning a blind eye towards such a major public issue. “According to the government’s own figures, 12 unemployed youths have committed suicide since 2014. There is also a bitter truth that lakhs of unemployed youths are getting trapped in the quagmire of drugs and crime out of desperation,” Mr. Hooda said.
“Today, crime in the State has increased to such an extent that Haryana is considered one of the unsafe States in the country in the social progress index released by the Central Government...The government was seen evading a reply in the matter of law and order and on the violence in Nuh in the Assembly session. The Opposition had given notice for a discussion on this issue, which was also rejected, citing that the matter was sub judice. The truth is that, after the Nuh violence, the issue of ‘bulldozers’ has reached the court. The Congress wanted a discussion on the increasing graph of violence and crime in the State,” the former CM said.
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“Not only this, the BJP-JJP Government is also running away from judicial inquiry into the entire matter under the supervision of the sitting judge of the High Court. It is clear from this that the government is neither ready for discussion nor a fair investigation in this matter. This means there is a clear attempt by the government to hide the truth,” Mr. Hooda alleged.
On the Centre reducing the price of LPG by ₹200, Mr. Hooda said the government has given a small discount to the public after looting a large sum from them. “The government had increased the rate of cylinder from ₹400 to ₹1,150. It is now attempting to act against inflation by making LPG cylinders cheaper by just ₹200,” he said.
