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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Thursday launched a fierce attack on the opposition Congress party reminding how corruption and favouritism in jobs flourished when they were in power whereas merit and transparency has been the sole criteria under the ruling dispensation.
 
Participating in the discussion on the Governor's address in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on the second day of the ongoing Winter Session, they claimed that the BJP-led Government has brought in transparency and given 1.70 lakh jobs during the past 10 years. The discussion during the Governor's address also saw verbal exchanges between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress members on some issues.
 
Rewari BJP MLA Laxman Singh Yadav reminded the Congress that there was a time when the opposition party was in power and “people had to sell their land to procure jobs and then middlemen used to exploit them too…But our government brought in transparency and we gave 1.70 lakh jobs during the past 10 years. When the Congress was in power, there was regional bias in development while favouritism, corruption prevailed in giving jobs, but our government gave jobs without any kharchi and parchi and merit has been sole criteria, undertook equitable development and brought in transparency”.
 
Pointing to Congress benches, Sohna BJP MLA Tejpal Tanwar said that all-round development took place under the BJP-led government in the State for the last 10 years. “The people gave us a mandate for the third consecutive time when we delivered,” he added. 
 
Per capita income in Haryana over Rs 3.25L, but 70% population BPL: Cong
Rohtak Congress MLA BB Batra alleged, “Money power has been used by the BJP in the polls. People raised questions on EVMs.” Intervening, Haryana Minister Arvind Sharma said that Congress has always been in the habit of putting blame on EVMs whenever they lose an election.
 
Batra responded, “There are 120 countries where EVMs are not used. Why are elections not held in the country using ballot papers?” The Congress leader said the new data shows that “70 percent of the state's population falls below poverty line (BPL)…We have to ponder on this”. He said that it was ironic that while on one hand, the per capita income is over Rs 3.25 lakh, 70 per cent of the population was BPL.
 
Stating that there are two things — one is removing poverty and second to provide food to the hungry, Batra said that the government is not working to remove poverty but focusing to meet only hunger needs.
 
Senior Congress leader Raghuvir Singh Kadian said that the government is committed to securing its legitimate share of water from the Ravi and Beas rivers and completing the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal. “Haryana should get its share of SYL waters at the earliest,” he said, urging the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to take an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on SYL. He said that the government is saying there is no DAP fertiliser shortage, "but the reality is otherwise".
 
Congress MLA Nirmal Singh said that the government should put out data stating how many out of total government jobs given during past ten years have been given to those who are from outside the state. Bhiwani BJP MLA Ghanshyam Saraf alleged that his constituency was neglected during the Congress' time, but it witnessed development during the saffron party led government.
 
Intervening in a matter raised by Congress member Mohd Illyas, Punhana MLA in Nuh district, Haryana Minister Rao Narbir Singh said that Mewat region witnessed development under the BJP rule. The Minister said that the Congress should tell how much funds were given to Mewat when they were in power.
 
BJP Safidon MLA Ram Kumar Gautam said that he had said "the fight is between BJP and Hooda's party and not the Congress" even before the assembly polls were held in Haryana. “When we used to go to villages and towns and ask people how many development works were undertaken during the Congress' time, they used to say all development took place under the BJP's rule,” Gautam said.