Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday hit back at his Congress predecessor and Leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the allegations of increasing unemployment in the state.
Khattar said that the Leader of the Opposition is referring to a report of an institution which doesn’t have any credibility. According to the March 2020 report of the National Statistical Organization, the unemployment rate in Haryana was 7 percent between January and March, 2020, while the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report showed it to be 23.7 percent. Therefore, the rhetoric being made by Hooda on the increase in unemployment rate in Haryana is false and baseless, the Chief Minister said.
A day before, the Congress leader had blamed the BJP led Haryana Government for increasing unemployment in the state while quoting the figures from CMIE report.
Khattar said that Congress leaders are trying to take political leverage based on the report of an institution which has no credibility of its own. Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) is a privately owned company created to make profit, whose decision cannot be called fair and transparent. CMIE’s survey report is not based on employability, workforce and labour force, he said.
He further said that there are many mistakes in the design, size, data, questionnaire etc. in the survey of CMIE. Firstly, the CMIE survey report is not based on employability, workforce and labor force. Secondly, its survey report covers only 0.028 per cent of the total households, which is not enough to present a complete picture. 70 percent urban and 30 percent rural households have been included in this survey report, which is in contrast to the geographical and demographic environment of Haryana, as we have 65 percent of the population living in rural areas and 35 percent in urban areas.
This survey report does not include questions to calculate unemployment rate. Apart from this, students and retirees have also been included in this survey report, which is another big mistake, he added.
The Chief Minister said that under the ambitious scheme Parivar Pehchan Patra being run by the Citizen Resource Information Department, almost every family in the state has been registered, in which people have declared their own unemployment, which is only 6 percent. When the people of the state themselves are declaring the unemployment rate, on what basis are the leaders of the opposition saying that the unemployment rate is increasing in Haryana, he asked.
On the statement of Hooda that the airport project to be built in Meham has gone to another state, Khattar said that during the Congress Government, a proposal to build an airport at Meham was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Even the land was identified for the project. However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation never approved this proposal because the proposed airport of Meham was very close to the Delhi airport and it was coming in the descent path of the plane i.e. the landing route of the plane. Due to these technical reasons, the Ministry never approved the project, he said.
Lashing out at Hooda, the Chief Minister further said that when no land was acquired for any project that was not approved, then on what basis are the opposition leaders making false statements.
He said that the present State Government is developing Hisar as an Integrated Aviation Hub, in which many aviation related activities will be promoted. These will include facilities for aviation training, simulator training, repair facility, defense aerospace manufacturing and air cargo port etc, he said Responding to the statement made by the senior Congress leader regarding the construction of Rail Coach Factory in Haryana, Khattar said that Rail Coach Factory is being constructed by Railway Vikas Nigam Limited at Barhi (Ganaur) in district Sonipat. And its work is in progress which will be completed in December 2021.
He said that the foundation stone of this project was laid in October 2019 and despite the crisis period of global Covid-19 pandemic, this project will be completed within a stipulated period of 2 years.
The total budget allocated for this project is around Rs 484 crore, out of which about Rs 437 crore has been spent. The main objective of this factory is to upgrade and modernize railway coaches. This Rail Coach Factory is being constructed on about 172 acres of land and every year about 700 rail coaches will be renovated and modernized in this factory, the Chief Minister added.