Haryana Congress MLA Kiran Choudhary arrives to attend the second day of Budget Session at Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, Monday. (Photo: Jaipal Singh)
The second day of the ongoing Budget Session of Haryana Assembly saw Opposition trying to corner the BJP-JJP alliance dispensation on the issues of its new excise policy, mounting debt on state, sugarcane dues of farmers, and lack of conversion of memorandums of understanding that the government claims to have signed with industrialists.
While the Question Hour and Zero Hour witnessed cordial discussions, the latter half of the proceedings witnessed Opposition hitting out at the treasury benches.
Congress MLA from Mahendragarh, Rao Dan Singh raised the farmers’ issue and accused the cooperative sugar mills of not clearing the outstanding dues of cane growers. Earlier, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta had apprised the House that a calling attention motion on the issue pertaining to cane growers was accepted and shall be discussed in the House on a later date.
Dan Singh also accused government of turning a blind eye towards the people of south Haryana, who are yet to receive the adequate share of water.
Claiming that no major developmental project has been set up by the Manohar Lal Khattar government, he said, “All major development works including the setting up of power plants, extension of metro lines, setting up of universities and colleges and hospitals took place during the Congress rule”.
He said while government claims that MoUs worth over Rs 6.28 lakh crore were signed during various investment meets over the past five years, they should “apprise the House on how much investment the state has got during the last five years and how many of these MoUs have materialised”.
Referring to the mounting debt of the state, Singh pointed towards the Treasury benches and said, “You are running the government on borrowings.”
As BJP members including Aseem Goel and Mahipal Dhanda, continued to disrupt Dan Singh, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda urged the Speaker to allow his party member to complete his statement, else the Congress members too will be forced to interrupt the BJP MLAs when they speak on Governor’s Address.
Dan Singh, while referring to some provisions of the excise policy, claimed “it will increase liquor addiction among youths”. On the issue of drug malady, he said “after Punjab, drug menace is fast spreading in Haryana” and called upon the government to take effective steps to control it.
Earlier, during the Question Hour, opposition members led by Kiran Choudhry raised strong objection after several of the calling attention notices mooted by them were not considered for discussion. Choudhry also urged the Speaker to give her the reasons for rejecting all her calling attention notices. The opposition also objected to Speaker not accepting the calling attention motion on the “paddy scam” in the state. Congress MLA from Jhajjar, Geeta Bhukkal too objected for not accepting her calling attention motion pertaining to crime against women and on the issue of women safety in the State.
Earlier, BJP MLA Abhe Singh Yadav initiated the discussion on the Governor’s Address.
Yadav said the previous BJP government in the state undertook equitable development and now the present BJP-JJP dispensation was continuing that with the spirit of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”. The BJP legislator referred to the government’s various steps in agriculture, health, education and other sectors.
While participating in the Governor’s Address, JJP MLA Jogi Ram Sihag asked the state government to take back cases registered against youths during the Jat quota agitation in the state four years ago.