By Jag Mohan Thaken
CHANDIGARH: Haryana unit of Congress Party has raised the public issues, through the gherao of assembly march, to ensure accountability from the BJP government on numerous issues, including bank fraud of Rs. 590 crores by a private bank, the cancellation of ration cards for over 1.4 million poor people, the suspension of pensions for the elderly, the abolition of MNREGA for labourers, and the deprivation of Haryana’s youth from jobs.
The party alleges that the ruling BJP party government has failed on all fronts. Former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition (LoP), Bhupender Hooda, said that as a responsible opposition, Congress will raise public issues on every platform, from the streets to the House. The more the BJP shirks its responsibility, the more vigorously Congress will advocate for the public. Ultimately, the government will have to be held accountable. Hammering the government, Mr. Hooda said that the BJP government has failed on every front. From law and order to the economy, employment to inflation, agriculture to education, health to sanitation, the BJP has demonstrated its failure and incompetence in all areas.
Why does the Congress warn the government that if immediate action from the government on all these issues is not taken and if the public’s problems are not addressed, the agitation will intensify? What are the public issues, which the opposition is raising loudly?
The congress leaders allege that this government is neither able to provide MSP and compensation to farmers, nor is it providing employment to youth, nor is it able to provide quality education to students, nor is it providing security to the public. The way crimes and scams are taking place in the state, it seems as if there is no such thing as a government here. The state has been left to scamsters and gangsters.
Regarding the pension cuts to the elderly, the Leader of the Opposition, Hooda said that now the government is claiming to restore full pensions. Whereas the government previously claimed it hadn’t cut anyone’s pension. If not, why are they being restored? Along with pensions, ration cards issued before the elections are now being cancelled, which is vote theft in itself. Nearly 1.4 million ration cards have been cancelled in Haryana since the elections. In Ambala alone, 54,000 ration cards have been cancelled.
Hooda said that the Congress government increased the old-age pension from ₹200 to ₹1,500, a seven-and-a-half-fold increase. Meanwhile, the BJP government has only increased it twice in 11 years, while inflation has risen three to four times. He further said that farmers are constantly being discriminated against under this government. The weight of a fertilizer bag has been reduced from 50 to 40 kg, while the rates remain the same. The claim of providing MSP for 24 crops is also false; Haryana doesn’t grow that many crops. More than ₹2,000 crore in profits were generated from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, but claims are not received, and people are abandoning insurance. Not even 10% of the compensation has been paid yet.
On MNREGA, Hooda said that MNREGA was a revolutionary scheme of the Congress. During the Congress government, Haryana paid the highest wages to workers in the country. However, as soon as the BJP came to power, it undermined workers’ rights. After coming to power, the BJP began weakening MNREGA. The Congress’s response to a question in Parliament revealed that over 800,000 MNREGA workers were registered in Haryana. However, in 2024-25, the government provided 100 days of work to only 2,100 families. The government neither provided workers with work nor provided compensation as provided in the scheme.
The Leader of the Opposition also said that this government has betrayed women in the name of the Lado Laxmi Yojana. He said that during the elections, a promise was made to provide Rs. 2,100 per month to all women, but now only a few women are receiving this amount. While 21.3 million people in Haryana were in the BPL category in 2024-25, approximately 8.5 million women should have benefited from this scheme. However, the government is currently talking about providing funds to only 800,000 women. Not only this, it is now being said that women will receive only ₹1,100 and a ₹1,000 deposit. Conditions such as income limits, children’s education, and malnutrition have also been imposed. The government is deliberately imposing such conditions so that most women are automatically excluded from the beneficiary list.
Raising the issues of scams by the present BJP government, former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda also raised the issue of the Rs 590 crore IDFC Bank scam and MNREGA in the Assembly on 23rd February, a party press release claims so.
Hooda also raised the issue of scam in the labour department. “Recently, a work slip scam worth ₹1,500 crore was exposed in the Labour Department. This is no small scam, but a blatant government-protected loot of the rights of millions of poor, hard working labourers. According to the revelations, lakhs of work slips and labour registrations were found to be fake, and crores of Rupees went into the pockets of people who had no connection to labour,” he stated.
Hooda pointed out that scams worth thousands of crores of Rupees occurred previously, during BJP rule, including the liquor scam, mining scam, Gwal Pahari scam, paddy scam, cooperative scam, FPO scam, HSSC recruitment scam, cash-for-job scam, HPSC bribery scam (cash was seized in the office), paper leak scam, millet procurement scam, ration scam, sanitation fund scam and roadways kilometre scheme scam. He said the HTET scam, scholarship scam, crop insurance scam, electricity meter purchase scam, medical equipment purchase scam, sugar mill scam, Amrit Yojana scam, road construction scam, stadium construction scam, family ID scam, property ID scam, Ayushman Yojana scam, Gurugram Municipal Corporation scam and Faridabad Municipal Corporation scam were also carried out during the BJP government.
“The ₹180 crore scam involving a foundation-less boundary wall at Hisar Airport occurred, while valuable land worth hundreds of crores of Rupees was auctioned in Kaithal for a mere ₹12 crore. Furthermore, the recruitment scam in Haryana likely surpassed all other scams in the country,” Hooda alleged.
Hooda reminded that Rs 3.60 crores of bribe were found with the officials in HPSC office. Question papers of every competitive exam have been leaked. “There is no such recruitment in Haryana whose paper has not been leaked or the exam has not been cancelled. A rate list was revealed during interrogation of the officer who took the bribe. Rs 35 to 40 lakhs for dental surgeon, Rs 20 lakhs for staff nurse, 10 lakhs for ANM, similarly there were higher and lower rates for every small and big post. In the HPSC Dental Surgeon Recruitment Exam of the year 2021, a case of a BJP councillor and VHP leader embezzling lakhs of Rupees in the name of getting a job is included,” he said. (IPA Service)
How February Revolution Of 1917 In Russia Played An Important Role Before October 