Chandigarh, Oct 17 (PTI) Haryana has gone from being among the country’s leading states in per capita income and employment generation to ranking among the worst in unemployment, crime and debt, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged on Saturday, launching a scathing attack on the BJP government on the second anniversary of its third term in office.
Describing the BJP’s 12 years in power in the state as a period of “false promises, rising crime, highest unemployment and highest debt”, the senior Congress leader claimed the government had no achievements to its credit.
Hooda said the BJP had promised permanent jobs to workers of the skill development corporation, but the chief minister told the last Assembly session that this would not happen as the system was meant to provide temporary employment.
He alleged that the government had also promised two lakh recruitments, but not a single recruitment notification by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) had been issued in two years. Around two lakh posts remain vacant in government departments, he claimed, adding that unemployed youth were leaving the state and the country.
Hooda accused the BJP of forming the government on the basis of “false promises and vote theft”.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has revealed the theft of votes in front of the whole country and the whole country is protesting against this theft,” he said.
The former chief minister said Haryana was the country’s leading state in per capita income, per capita investment, employment generation, honouring sportspersons and the elderly, providing minimum support price (MSP) to farmers, welfare and law and order when the Congress left office in 2014.
“But today, Haryana has become the number one state in the country in terms of unemployment, drug addiction, crime and debt,” he added.
Targeting the Nayab Singh Saini government over its handling of agriculture, Hooda alleged that farmers were facing difficulties in securing fair prices for their produce and were being pushed to the brink of distress.
He claimed farmers were being forced to sell paddy at Rs 400 per quintal below the MSP and millet at Rs 800-900 per quintal below the MSP because of inadequate government procurement. This, he said, was despite the BJP promising a price of Rs 3,100 for paddy during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Hooda also alleged that crime in Haryana had reached an all-time high and cited the central government’s Social Progress Index to claim that the state had been declared the most unsafe in the country.
More than 60 criminal gangs were active in Haryana, he claimed, adding that robbery, dacoity, extortion, firing and murder had become routine.
On the state’s finances, Hooda alleged that the BJP government had pushed Haryana into a severe debt crisis, with its economic standing slipping to 14th place among 18 major states.
He said Haryana’s debt stood at around Rs 70,000 crore from the state’s formation until 2014, but had risen to Rs 5.5 lakh crore under the BJP government.
The Congress leader also accused the state government of damaging the education system, from schools to higher education. He said no university in Haryana had featured among the top 100 institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings released by the Union Ministry of Education.
Hooda said the previous Congress government had taken several major steps to strengthen healthcare infrastructure in the state.
He cited the establishment of a new health university, six medical colleges in Karnal, Mewat, Khanpur, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani and Faridabad, AIIMS-II and the National Cancer Institute at Badsa. Ten national super-speciality institutes were also sanctioned along with AIIMS-II, he said.
In addition, 641 rural health facilities, including community health centres and primary health centres, were constructed during the previous Congress government’s tenure, Hooda said. PTI CHS NB
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