Chandigarh, Feb 21 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Monday accused the BJP-JJP government of “ruining” the state’s financial health and making it “worse” than those of Bihar and UP by “misgovernance, corruption and financial mismanagement”.
Surjewala attacked the BJP-led state government claiming that in seven years of its rule, it has increased the state’s debt from Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 2 lakh crore. “The BJP-JJP government has ruined the state’s financial health,” the Congress general secretary told reporters here.
He alleged that due to the “misgovernance, corruption and financial mismanagement” the financial health of the state has been “ruined”.
“With all-round corruption, misgovernance and financial mismanagement, the Khattar-Dushyant government has made the economic condition of the progressive state worse than (those of) Bihar and UP,” the party’s chief spokesperson further alleged.
Alleging that the BJP-led Haryana government has increased the state’s debt from Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 2 lakh crore in seven years of its rule, he said, “The state government is pushing the state in debt and taking it towards bankruptcy.” He said while the general public is reeling under financial burden the government is coming out with directives, further burdening the people instead of helping them out.
The Congress leader also opposed the recent “steep increase” in the development charges in areas falling under municipal councils, committees and corporations.
“It seems that BJP-JJP government is hell-bent upon fleecing and looting people at the time when people’s income has fallen, inflation has beaten the budget of every household, petrol, diesel, cooking gas, cooking oil prices, pulses prices have made a hole in pockets of common citizens,” he said.
“The February 18 government order seeks to enhance the developmental charge in all municipal councils, committees and corporations,” he said.
He said during the previous Congress government, the charge was Rs 30 per square yard in municipal committees, Rs 50 per square yard in municipal councils, Rs 100 per square yard in municipal corporations and Rs 150 per square yard in municipal corporations of Faridabad and Gurgaon.
“This has now been increased to five per cent of the prevailing collector rate (which is the minimum rate of property set by the authorities for a particular area),” he said.
“What is the justification of connecting collector rate with developmental charge? This shows the government’s ill-intent,” he alleged.
Giving an example, he said if one already has a house and has paid developmental charge but wants a modification in his building plan or needs an occupation certificate for raising a loan, for transfer of property or for any other purpose, “they will need to pay the new developmental charge at five per cent of collector rate afresh on the entire property across all cities and towns”.
Houses which are within the “lal dora” were always exempt from any developmental charge, “but now they will also have to pay the entire developmental charge at five per cent of the collector rate”.
‘Lal Dora’ refers to land that is part of the village ‘abadi’ (habitation) and is used for non-agriculture purposes only.
“Moreover, the collector rate will continue to increase year-on-year and this developmental charge will increase without any further notification because now it is fixed at five per cent of the collector rate irrespective of what the collector rate is,” he said.
He said the party demands rollback of the “draconian” order.
Surjewala said the BJP-JJP government does not care about common people and had “earlier fleeced them by raising VAT on diesel from 9.25 per cent to 17.25 per cent and VAT on petrol from 21 per cent to 26.25 per cent.” PTI SUN RAX RAX
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