Rohtak, Oct 25 (PTI) Former Haryana chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday alleged that every section of society was “troubled” by the BJP government, accusing it of mismanagement of the power sector and failure to procure farmers’ produce at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Hooda blamed the state government for the three-day power supply breakdown across Haryana, alleging that its move to privatise power distribution in Gurugram and Nuh was intended to benefit a private company at the expense of consumers, including farmers.
Farmers, workers, government employees, traders, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, women, the poor and people in both rural and urban areas were suffering due to the alleged misdeeds of the BJP government, he said.
The government was failing to manage the economy, law and order and the power supply system, he alleged.
“The government sought to impose the burden of expensive electricity on a large section of the population, including farmers, solely to benefit a private company,” Hooda said, holding it responsible for the power supply disruption that persisted for three days.
He said he had raised concerns when the government first proposed privatising power distribution in Gurugram and Nuh and had personally flagged the issue in the Legislative Assembly. However, the government ignored his objections, he alleged.
“The entire state has had to pay the price for this,” he said, questioning who would compensate people for the losses suffered during the three-day disruption.
Hooda alleged that the government’s intentions had been “flawed” from the outset and that it had failed to oppose privatisation despite his demands. Now that power sector employees had demonstrated their unity, the government was merely putting on a show of standing with them, he claimed.
“We suspect that the government might still push forward with this decision to benefit a private company, but the Congress party will oppose it on every platform,” he said, warning that farmers could lose the subsidies they currently receive if power distribution passed into private hands.
On the agricultural front, Hooda alleged that farmers were struggling to sell their produce in mandis as the government had failed to expedite the procurement of paddy and bajra despite repeated demands. He also claimed that procured crops were not being lifted from the mandis in time.
Farmers had suffered heavy losses after their crops were hit by rain on two separate occasions, he said, adding that hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of paddy had been submerged across the state, causing significant losses to farmers and arhtiyas.
Hooda accused the government of deliberately avoiding the procurement of farmers’ produce at the MSP, effectively forcing them to sell their crops to private agencies at lower prices. PTI CHS NB
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