Kanwar Pal Gujjar, Minister of Education, Forests, Tourism, Parliamentary Affairs and Hospitality, says that the Government is committed to provide quality education to the students studying in Government schools in Haryana. He says Haryana tourism would further be promoted through digitisation in a big way in 2020.
59-year old, Gujjar won the Assembly election in 2019 for the third time from Jagadhiri Vidhan Sabha constituency by defeating Akram Khan of Congress. He is among the few senior Haryana BJP leaders who won the Assembly election in 2019.
Inspired by Sadhvi Rithambara, Gujjar jumped into the Ram Janambhoomi movement in 1989 and joined the BJP in 1990. He became legislator for the first time in 2000 but quit the assembly to protest Punjab government’s 2004 move to scrap the water-sharing agreement. Gujjar was earlier Speaker of the last Assembly.
In an exclusive interview with The Pioneer, he reveals his political journey and his experience as a Minister of the State. Excerpts from the interview:
Your party had set target of 75+ in the Assembly election 2019 but BJP’s tally reduced to 40 from 47 seats. Your comment
There is nothing much to say on this now. But people have given mandate to BJP in Haryana as we did work. The five or six independents who have won are all BJP rebels who fought separately due to ticket issues so in this way, the BJP did get a majority as the independents were our own. Sometimes, there is a mistake in estimates on seats one will win. But the bottom line remains that we got three per cent more vote share than last time, up to over 36 per cent now. The work Manohar Lal Khattar has done as a State CM of running a non-corrupt government was unheard of in Haryana in the past. Jobs were given in the most transparent manner. Still, the new government will look into any shortcomings and improve upon them in the second.
Congress leaders say that both the parties -BJP and JJP fought election against each other but jointly formed government in the State. Will this coalition government complete its tenure of five years? Your comment
This is laughable as the Congress has won just 31 seats. If the mandate was for Congress, they would have crossed the 45-mark. As far as JJP is concerned, it won 10 seats. Also, JJP is now with us in the new government. This government will complete its five year tenure. There is no threat to this government.
Many senior BJP leaders lost the Assembly election. Eight out of 10 ministers of the previous BJP-led government lost their seats. How did this happen?
Maybe these ministers got too busy in running the government and did not pay adequate attention to people in their constituency. There is a delicate balance which must be maintained as a minister of running the government and attending to people in the constituency.
What are the works you done in your constituency during previous five years’ of BJP government?
All round development took place in my Constituency. From hospitals, schools, colleges and roads to rural electrification, developmental works worth Rs 1,100 crore are either ready or near completion. Two 30-bed hospitals are operational, while work on a 100-bed hospital will start soon. I used to live with the people and held Janata Darbars (open sessions) regularly to solve problems of the people. I have done lots of work and ensured better roads and augmenting the sewerage system besides the setting up of college buildings and ITIs.
How has your political journey been so far?
Since school days, I was interested in politics. I was students’ leader and also contested election of students’ union in Maharaja Aggarsain College, Jagadhri. I was elected as a president of students union in Maharaja Aggarsain College. Since school days, I was also a very keen sportsman. Initially, my family was associated with Congress. An incident has changed my life forever. There was a programme of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) firebrand leader Sadhvi Rithambara in my district Jagadhri in 1990 and I had attended her programme. Her speech was patriotic and motivational. I took membership of RSS and later joined the BJP. In 1991, I contested the election first time as BJP candidate and lost the election by 4000 votes. In 1996, I again lost the election by 520 votes. But I was elected MLA in 2000 when INLD-BJP ruled the state. In 2009, I again lost the election. In 2014, I won by 40, 000 votes and got an opportunity to become a Speaker.
Cutting across the party lines, you as a Speaker were appreciated by leaders of ruling and opposition parties. How was your experience as a Speaker? How do you see your new role as a Minister in the coalition government?
I am thankful to all leaders who appreciated my conduct in the House. I was honest in my work during the session. I gave equal chance to all legislators, including those of opposition, to raise public issues during session. New legislators were also given equal chance to raise public issues.
Unemployment is a big issue before the government. What are the steps being taken in your departments to provide employment opportunities for the youth of the State?
Employment was given to large number of youth of the State during previous five years of BJP-led government. Moreover, the State government has now decided to launch an employment project on a pilot basis in five State colleges. The project will be launched in collaboration with private sector. Under this project, the unemployed graduate and post-graduate youth of the State will be given training on freelancing platforms like upworks.com, Guru.com, Odesk.com.
This type of training will generate self-employment opportunities in selected colleges for the excellence of higher education. After successful implementation of training in these colleges, graduate and postgraduate youth in other government colleges will also be trained to start self-employment and will get an opportunity to work from home.
Being a tourism Minister, what are the steps being taken to attract visitors to the state?
In the forthcoming Surajkund International Crafts Mela, Uzbekistan will be the “Partner Nation”. This time Himachal Pradesh will also participate as a theme-state. Due to the selection of Himachal Pradesh as a theme-state, this time the Surajkund fair will be having the Himachali tradition. After 23 years, cultural diversity of McLeodganj and Manali will be seen in the 35th International Surajkund Craft Fair. Himachal was made a theme-state in Surajkund Fair in 1996. Recently the Pinjore Heritage Festival was held and this time, school students and senior citizens visiting the festival were provided the facility of free entry at the Festival. Haryana Tourism Department has signed an agreement with the 'BharatP' company, so the payment can be accepted through UPI based 'QR' code scanning through more than 120 applications like Paytm, Google-Pay, Bheem-UPI, Phone-Pe, HDFC-Payzapp, SBI YONO, Truecaller etc in Haryana government tourist resorts and petrol pumps. Also, 120 swipe-machines have been installed at the department's resort and petrol pump to promote digitization in the department.
Many ministers (including you) of the Haryana government recently conducted raids in various departments and suspended the officials. What was the need for it?
Inspections should be conducted in departments from time to time so that services to the people can be delivered on time. During review meeting, I had directed to suspend Junior Engineer (JE) of Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam in Karnal for not performing his duties properly.
How will you improve level of education in government schools?
The Education board is presently holding various academic activities. To ensure the smooth functioning, 100 percent computerisation has been adopted by the Board. In many cases, the Haryana board has adopted the transparent policies of Central Board of Secondary Education, (CBSE), which includes Internal and continuous assessment of school candidates. Government and private schools of the State, which have excelled in the Board of School Education Haryana examinations were honoured by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
What is farm tourism? What steps are being taken to promote it?
Farm-tourism will be promoted in the State so that farmers can earn extra income along with their basic work. For this purpose, some places will be identified where tourists from India and abroad can get the information about Haryanvi culture such as making jaggery, cow milking, sowing seeds, plucking fruits in orchards, kite flying, bullock cart ride and Wrestlers arena. Till now 17 people have been given the license for Farm Tourism in Gurugram, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Sonipat, and other districts and for this there is a lot of trend among tourists. The concept of farm tourism is becoming very famous as a Holiday destination for corporate groups.