Haryana BJP leaders meet Governor, seek dismissal of Punjab government

Earlier on Friday, Khattar had gone to the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula and offered prayers for the long-life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Later, he addressed a press conference and targeted the Punjab government for the alleged security breach.

“We have submitted a memorandum to the Haryana Governor and requested him to recommend to the President of India to take stern action against the Punjab government,” Khattar said.

Interacting with media persons, Khattar further targeted the Congress on the issue of unemployment figures in Haryanaand quoted “official figures” of the state government that divulged that the unemployment rate to be not more than 6.1 per cent.

“For the last three years, we have been recording the family-data of Haryana’s citizens through Parivar Pehchan Patra. Till date, there are 65,78,311 families and around 2.98 crore people have registered. From 18-58 year old, there are 1,72,96,000 people. Out of these, there are 10,59,530 who are unemployed. These are the people who have declared that they are unemployed. There can’t be a bigger fact than self-declaration. We have official authentic figures. We have data of all the 2.98 crore people, which includes advocates, doctors, farmers, central government employees, central PSU employees, children. There are 18 lakh children in Haryana. There are construction workers, employees of other state governments, housewives, infants, landowners, industrial labourers, private contractual workers, shopkeepers, traders, businessmen, state government contractual employees, unorganised workers, senior citizen pensioners. There are 12.56 lakh farmers in the state”, Khattar said quoting the official figures on unemployment status in Haryana.

Refuting CMIE figures that has put Haryana’s unemployment at 34.1 per cent, Khattar said, “The official figures show that there is only 6.1 per cent unemployment in the state. Had there been 34.1 per cent unemployment, the state of affairs of the state would have been completely different. I would not like to comment on that.”

Responding to a question on whether the Haryana administration will take action against CMIE, Khattar said, “We shall discuss the issue with the Advocate General and action shall be taken, if required.”

“Till date, we have fulfilled three phases in collection of data in Parivar Pehchan Patra self-declaration verification. There are 1.48 lakh families whose income in Haryana is below Rs 1 lakh annually. The government is assisting all such families through various means to ensure their income is increased. Out of these, over 27,000 families have already been identified and facilitated through financial assistance with the help of banks and other financial institutions. Another phase of Antyodaya Melas shall soon be launched. We aim to complete the second phase of these melas by March 31,” Khattar added.

Talking about the fresh Covid-19 surge, Khattar said, “Our various programmes are getting affected due to this fresh surge. On Thursday, there were 2500 fresh cases reported in Haryana. Till date there are 114 cases of Omicron, of whom 83 have recovered. The transmission rate of the disease is increasing rapidly. We expect the disease spread to peak by January 25. Simultaneously, we have increased our vaccination campaign. On Thursday, in the age group of 15-18 year old, we administered over 1.5 lakh doses and around 2.5 lakh doses were administered to people above 18 years. The daily testing for Covid-19 is between 35,000-40,000. If required, we are ready to scale this up. Restrictions/ curbs are being imposed in several districts. Curbs have been imposed in 11 districts so far. We are monitoring the evolving situation on a daily basis and shall keep changing our combat-strategy accordingly.”

On the issues raised by private schools regarding the increase in fee of students, Khattar said, “We have decided to increase the fee for private school students by Rs. 200 per month. In rural areas, the fee for students till Class 5 will be Rs. 500 and above that it shall be Rs 700. In urban areas, it shall be Rs 700 and Rs 900, respectively. The government will bear this Rs 5 crore expenditure that will be required to cover the fee for such students.”

“Regarding the power department, the government is focussing on solar-energy. Till 2014, there were only 492 solar-powered tubewell connections in the state. Till date, over 25,500 connections have already been given and work is in progress on 13,800 more such connections. We have a target of 50,000 such solar-energy connections for farmers, so that farmers do not have to depend on electricity connections. Farmers only have to bear 25% of the cost, with the remaining being given as a subsidy by the government. The only condition is micro-irrigation has to be there. We are discouraging that over 50 horse power connections should not be granted and rather canal-water should be used for such areas, to avoid excessive electricity consumption,” Khattar said.