Haryana BJP govt appears to be running away from issues raised by Cong in Assembly: Hooda

Chandigarh, Dec 22 (PTI) Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday claimed that the BJP government appeared to be running away from the questions raised by his party and the issues of public interest throughout the entire Winter session of the Haryana Assembly.

After the conclusion of the Winter session on Monday evening, Hooda strongly objected to the government's stance, claiming that the government avoided discussion and questions throughout the session.

"This is the first time that not a single adjournment motion, calling attention motion or short-duration discussion motion moved by the Congress was accepted.

"The Congress had submitted motions to raise all important issues related to Haryana's rights, including farmers, unemployed youth, recruitment scams, minimum support price (MSP), paddy scam, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), corruption, education, health, deaths of sportspersons, Sutlej Yamuna Link canal (SYL) and Chandigarh but the government did not respond to a single one," he claimed.

The Leader of Opposition told reporters that repeated attempts were made "to mislead the House and silence the opposition, which is why the Congress had to stage walkouts several times".

"Even during the discussion on the no-confidence motion, the government remained completely silent on the issues raised by the Congress. The Haryana government could not even clarify the status of Chandigarh," the former chief minister claimed.

Hooda also said the government is running away from public issues and avoiding accountability in the Assembly.

Hooda said that "the new rules regarding the Aravalli range will cause the most harm to Haryana".

On the SYL issue, Hooda said the Supreme Court's final decision had already come in favour of Haryana but the government has not yet been able to secure the state's rightful share of water.

The BJP government in Haryana should have opposed this but the government remained silent even on the issue of illegal mining and the destruction of the Aravalli range, Hooda said.

Notably, asserting that 90 per cent of the Aravalli region will remain "protected", the Centre on Sunday rejected claims that the new definition of the Aravalli range will allow large-scale mining and cited a Supreme Court-ordered freeze on new mining leases in the region. PTI SUN KSS KSS