Terming Haryana’s new excise policy “a recipe for disaster”, former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday demanded that the BJP-JJP alliance government to immediately withdraw the new policy.
At a rally in Hisar’s Petwar village, Mr. Hooda said the excise policy announced by the government would push scores of youth into addiction. “Our (Congress’) policy was aimed at encouraging sports and making our youth world champions on the sports field. Their (BJP-JJP) policy is to push the youth of the State into addiction, which is a recipe for disaster. We have already seen what has happened in Punjab, they are pushing Haryana in the same direction,” alleged Mr. Hooda.
The former Chief Minister said the government had spent more than 100 days in office but the alliance partners have not yet been able to work out a Common Minimum Programme.
Mr. Hooda said the performance of the government is evaluated on the basis of the steps it takes to fulfil its pre-poll promises. “Based on what we have seen, we can say that this government has not taken one single step to fulfil the promises it has made in the election manifesto,” he said.
“Farmers are being pushed into debt as the government has increased rates on agricultural inputs and has increased taxes on them, on the other hand the increase in the prices of wheat and paddy has been minimal,” he said, adding that the irregularities in paddy procurement has demonstrated that the government has not given the farmers their due rights.
Former Rohtak Member of Parliament Deepender Singh Hooda said the people of Haryana had voted for change but the JJP has disregarded the mood of the people and deceived them to form a government in alliance with the BJP.
“They need to tell the people if they were given votes to fight the BJP and change the government or join hands with them. The message of this unholy and unprincipled alliance is reverberating all across the country,” he said.
‘Bigger failure’
The MP said the second term of the government would be a bigger failure than the first one.
“They have derailed the development process in the State and have watched silently as projects approved for Haryana during the Congress rule have been shifted to other States. This includes the airport at Hisar, Meham or the rail coach factory at Sonipat,” he alleged.