Haryana's former Chief Minister BS Hooda has blamed the state government for "failing on all fronts"
Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda today launched an all-out attack against the Haryana government, saying the state which once led in growth and development has now been hit by scams under the BJP-JJP regime.
He blamed the state government for "failing on all fronts".
"The development is non-existent and governance has come down to zero," said the former Chief Minister, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
"Haryana was the number one state in the country in growth and development when the Congress was in power," he claimed.
"Under the present regime, it has been hit by scams and rising crime graph. The latest is a multi-crore rice scam in the state which follows a long list of earlier scams in paddy procurement, liquor and mining...but the government is neither conducting proper investigation to identify culprits nor taking any action," he told reporters here.
News agency Press Trust of India reported that officials today said two Karnal-based mills are under the scanner after over 4,500 quintal of rice was found missing from their stock and some other irregularities were detected.
Mr Hooda said the seriousness of the government to probe scams can be gauged from the fact that in the alleged liquor scam, Home Minister Anil Vij had announced setting up of a special investigation team but later a special inquiry team was set up, "which is toothless and lacks powers to conduct proper investigation".
He claimed people will teach a befitting lesson to the BJP in the Baroda bypolls in the state.
The Baroda assembly seat in Sonipat district fell vacant in April after the demise of Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda. No poll date has yet been announced.
"I have no doubt that the Congress will win by a huge margin in this bypolls. I have said if Chief Minister Khattar is so sure of the development undertaken by his government, then he must contest the polls from Baroda and I am ready to face him from there," he said.
Mr Hooda said the government has "failed to undertake" any development during six years of their rule.
"They also do not have any vision for the future," he alleged.
"All they have done in these years is event management, publicising their non-existent achievements. They have only created slogans and made misleading claims instead of doing any work on the ground. Now, they have created a new slogan of providing 75 per cent reservation in private jobs, which is another attempt to mislead the public," he alleged.
He claimed that no medical college, no university, not a "single inch" railway or Metro line was laid during the present BJP government's time.
"As against this, new rail lines, Metro lines, universities, IIM, industrial model townships, medical colleges, colleges and universities, power plants, AIIMS, cancer institute and several other development projects were set up during our time," he claimed.
Mr Hooda said the state's debt rose from Rs 60,000 crore to nearly Rs 2 lakh crore and blamed the government for "fiscal mismanagement".
Expressing concern over coronavirus cases in Haryana crossing 18,000, Mr Hooda said the government should scale up testing if the spread of infection is to be prevented.
"Testing is the key and it should be increased," he said.
Mr Hooda said in the middle of the pandemic when farmers were already facing hardships, the government came out with "anti-farmer diktats" and asked them to grow alternate crops like maize by giving up paddy cultivation.
"And what was the fate of the alternate crops which the government wanted farmers to grow. Many farmers were forced to sell their maize produce for just Rs 800-900 per quintal as against the crop MSP of Rs 1,850 per quintal," he said.
Mr Hooda said various sections, including farmers, have been adversely affected by the situation caused by COVID-19.
"Farmers, labourers, traders and employees were looking towards the government for support but no real help came," he said.
He also claimed that the unemployment rate in Haryana was high but the government has not taken any concrete steps to deal with the issue.
A response from the Manohar Khattar-led BJP-JJP government in the state is awaited.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)