Unfazed by opposition’s criticism over his foreign jaunts at a time when the law and order situation in Haryana is deteriorating at an alarming rate, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Tuesday left for a three-day tour to Dubai to attract potential investors in the State.
The fourth foreign visit of the Chief Minister during his tenure has, however, snowballed into a political controversy with the opposition accusing Manohar lal of squandering public money on sightseeing trips abroad and returning empty handed in terms of investments.
As the Chief Minister left with a high-level delegation for three days Dubai visit on Tuesday, the opposition—Congress and Indian National lok Dal—has questioned the outcome of previous foreign tours undertake by Manohar lal and his cabinet and the rationale behind CM’s tour to Dubai, which is famous for sightseeing attractions.
“There was no outcome of previous foreign tours undertaken by the Chief Minister. And, CM’s latest tour to Dubai would hardly bring any investments to the state,” said former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while talking to The Pioneer.
Hitting out at the Chief Minister for worsening law and order situation in Haryana, Hooda said, “The crime rate is increasing and the state was burnt thrice in the past three years. In this scenario, who will want to come here and investIJ”
Peaceful environment is a key factor that the potential investors look for before investing in any project, he added.
The senior Congress leader added, “I will appreciate them if they (government) are able to bring any investments in the state.” Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar also lashed out at the Chief Minister saying that such foreign tours are meant for sightseeing only. Manohar lal is again going abroad while his previous three foreign tours have failed to attract foreign investments, alleged he.
Continuing his tirade against the Chief Minister, Tanwar said, “This BJP led State Government has done nothing in the past three years except wasting public money on the foreign tours and organizing various festivals.”
“The State Government is constantly draining its coffers. Be it the festivals like Gita Jayanti, Saraswati Mahotsav, state’s swarna jayanti celebrations among others or foreign tours undertaken by the Chief Minister or his cabinet colleagues, the government is busy wasting millions of rupees of the taxpayers’ money,” Tanwar said.
A day before, Kiran Choudhry, leader of the Haryana Congress legislature Party had asked the Chief Minister to cancel his Dubai visit as the investment always hinged on safe and peaceful environment and not by flaunting policies. The Indian National lok Dal has also trained guns at the Chief Minister for undertaking second foreign tour this year.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister, Haryana INlD chief Ashok Arora said that Dubai visit is another sightseeing opportunity for the CM.
“Even as hundreds of crores of rupees were spent for deployment of paramilitary forces to ensure peaceful environment in the state, three major cases of violence had been witnessed in Haryana during the tenure of BJP led Haryana Government. Instead of going abroad, the Chief Minister should first focus on resolving the problems within the State,” added Arora.
Meanwhile, the BJP Government in Haryana has remained unfazed and defended the foreign visit. While pictures of Manohar lal seen traveling in an economy class on a flight to Dubai was released by the State Government, the Chief Minister has himself claimed that many investors from Dubai are interested in coming to the State.
Notably, Manohar lal had in the past undertaken three foreign tours to different nations during first half of his five years tenure in Haryana. Earlier this year, the Chief Minister had led a high level delegation to Singapore and Hong Kong in a bid to attract investments for Haryana.
Manohar lal, who assumed power in October 2014, went for his first ten days tour abroad to the US and Canada in August 2015 and had claimed to have attracted investment of Rs 10,000 crore in the State. Following his last year’s tour to Japan and China in January 2016, the Chief Minister had boasted of huge investment being promised by the Wanda company of China.
However, the opposition has alleged that even after Chief Minister’s big claims, only a few foreign investors had come forward for setting up new ventures in Haryana in the past three years.