Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said that it is necessary to combat the threat of religious conversion and the State Government will see whether to bring an ordinance or introduce an anti-conversion Bill in the next Vidhan Sabha session.

“Several incidents of (marriage and forcible conversion) have been reported from parts of Haryana. To prevent such incidents, it is necessary to make a law which will act as a deterrent. A study has been done and soon, a draft law will be prepared,” the Chief Minister said while responding to a question on anti-conversion law during a press conference on 2500 days of the present State Government.

The State Government had last year announced to bring an “effective law” against “love jihad”, a slur politically used by the Hindu right-wing for inter-faith relationships and marriages involving a Muslim man.

While the anti-conversion Bill was planned to be introduced during the budget session of Haryana Assembly in March, it could not be tabled due to concerns raised by the Law And Legislative Secretary or Legal Remembrancer (LR).

To a question on burgeoning debt liability on the state, the Chief Minister said that the debt which is now nearly Rs 1.60 lakh crore is well within the fiscal parameters set by the Central Government. When Congress had left in 2014, the State Government had a debt liability of Rs 97,000 crore, he said.

Taking a dig at the Punjab Government, he said that Haryana is in a better financial position than its neighboring states. The situation in Punjab is bad. Even their own Ministers have accepted that they should adopt the strategies in line with Haryana so as to get over their financial situation, he said.

When asked about the police inquiry into the constable recruitment paper leak case, the Chief Minister said that around 30 people have been arrested so far. In just a short span of time, the State Police has unravelled the case and soon more arrests would be made.

He said that the government has also enacted a law to stop cheating in the state.  On Congress; demand of CBI inquiry into the issue, Khattar said, “We have complete trust in our state investigation agency. Our police have reached the roots of this case. Any case is transferred to CBI only when a state investigating agency reaches a dead-end or fails to do the required investigation.”

Responding to a question on cabinet expansion, the Chief Minister said that the party’s central leadership will decide on this issue. Apart from the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, there are currently 10 council of ministers comprising one from its alliance partner and an independent in the Cabinet. The cabinet can have 14 members, including the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, with two slots kept for the future expansion.

Regarding the regularization of illegal colonies, the Chief Minister said that for regularizing unauthorized colonies of Urban Local Bodies, a Bill has been passed and after this, around 1200 colonies have registered themselves and those who fulfil the criteria would be regularized

On this occasion, the Chief Minister also announced to give an amount of Rs 32 lakh for Chandigarh Press Club.