Haryana BJP government evaded discussion on public interest issues during Assembly session: Hooda

Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of evading the public interest issues and adopting an anti-people attitude during the recent Assembly session. He said that the government did not pay attention to the Opposition’s questions, resolutions, and issues of public concern throughout the session.

Mr. Hooda made the allegations a day after the three-day Winter Session of Haryana Assembly, which ended on December 22.

Holding a press conference at his residence in Chandigarh, Mr. Hooda, flanked by party legislators, said the Congress had submitted proposals for discussion on various important issues such as the status of Chandigarh, mining in the Aravali hills, farmers’ problems, unemployed youth, recruitment scams, Minimum Support Price for crops, paddy scam, Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, corruption, education, health, deaths of sportspersons, the Sutlej-Yamuna Link water dispute, and the hate speeches by the BJP leaders. But for the first time in the history of the Assembly, not a single notice for adjournment motion, motion for suspension of business, or short-duration discussion motion of the Congress was accepted.

The desperation within the BJP was clearly visible after the serious revelations of ‘vote chori’, which is why the BJP deliberately brought a proposal for discussion on electoral reforms in the Assembly to divert attention from this issue, said Mr. Hooda,

He added that the proposal did not fall within the jurisdiction of the Assembly and hence the Congress staged a walkout. “The Congress will bring a special resolution on ‘vote chori’ in the next session,” said Mr. Hooda.

“Two promising young players from the State, Hardik and Aman, died tragically, which was a result of government negligence. We brought a motion for discussion on this, but the government did not even deem it appropriate to respond,” he added. Mr. Hooda pointed out that the Congress also gave a short-duration discussion motion notice on the Aravali issue, but the government evaded that as well. “The Forest Survey of India report clearly states that the destruction of the Aravali range will have the greatest impact on Haryana. This will lead to increased pollution,” he stated.

“What is the Haryana government’s stance on this? Why did the government not defend it in the Supreme Court, and why is it not filing a review petition now? The government has not given any satisfactory answer to this either,” he pointed out.

Similarly, the Congress’s adjournment motion notices were on waterlogging, rising pollution, the paddy scam, and MNREGS. He said the situation with MNREGS was so bad that while 800,000 people were registered, only 2,100 people had received the full hundred days of employment. “Looking at the record of the last five years, no compensation has been paid to any worker under the MNREGS rules,” he stated.