Amid opposition’s criticism of foreign tours undertaken by the Haryana Chief Minister and his Cabinet, Haryana Minister OP Dhankar alongwith a 12-member delegation will leave on Monday night for a study tour to three countries.
Haryana Agriculture and Farmer Welfares’ Minister, Dhankar will lead a State delegation to Australia, Fiji and New Zealand on a two-week visit to study latest methods in the field of agriculture and horticulture.
Apart from bureaucrats, the delegation includes three MlAs — Mool Chand Sharma, Subhash Chander and Tek Chand Sharma. The delegation will return on June 18 and submit a report to the Chief Minister about the visit.
Dhankar, who also holds the portfolios of irrigation development, panchayat, dairy and fishing had last year led a delegation of legislators and bureaucrats to learn agricultural techniques in the United States.
While the opposition has termed the foreign tours undertaken by the Ministers as a “waste of taxpayers’ money”, the Cabinet Minister will proceed for his foreign tour, which is likely to cost more than a crore to the State exchequer.
The opposition-Congress and INlD-has hit out at the BJP led Haryana Government for allegedly allowing the wastage of public money in the name of foreign visits.
leader of opposition and Indian National lok Dal’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala alleged the Government was busy in undertaking such “junkets” while the general public is suffering due to deteriorating law and order situation, shortage of water and power in the state.
The Chief Minister and his Cabinet Ministers are not at all concerned about the problems of the state and busy in sightseeing and foreign tours, he added.
Slamming the Government for allowing such foreign tours, Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar said that everyone knows the results of such foreign tours. It is a leisure and sightseeing trip and wastage of public money, he said.
Tanwar added the state is yet to see the results of foreign tours undertaken by the Chief Minister. Recently, the Chief Minister Manohar lal had also attracted severe criticism from the opposition for his five-day foreign tour to Singapore and Hong-Kong.
The Congress and INlD had slammed the CM for the foreign visit amid the deteriorating law and order situation following gang-rape cases in Rohtak and Gurugram and a series of protests held by girl students suffering from eve-teasing and demanding their village school upgradation in various parts of the state.
Manohar lal had led a 12-member delegation including Industries and Commerce Minister Vipul Goel to the two countries. Apart from this, ten industrialists from the state had also accompanied the Chief Minister during his foreign tour last month.