In a bid to counter Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on his development plank, the Congress is showcasing Haryana ahead of the lok Sabha polls next year.
Abiding with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s recent directive that instead of bad mouthing Opposition it should be countered with facts and figures, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda has come out with a nine-page document to claim that his State has performed better than Gujarat on all development parameters. This, he said, included better GDP, higher per capita income and employment rate, better resource mobilisation, higher old age pension and widow pension to larger number of beneficiaries and other social security schemes.
Haryana has Rs 10,700 per capita plan budget as compared to Rs 9,685 of Gujarat, Rs 1,23,554 per capita income in 2012-13 as compared to Rs 89,772 of Modi’s State, GDP during 11th plan was 19.1 per cent at current price and 9 per cent at constant price while for the latter it was 16.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively. In Economic Freedom Indicators Haryana ranked one with 0.75 rating followed by Gujarat with 0.74 rating, the former has shown growth of 21.2 per cent public spending on education and 28.4 per cent on health while latter has just 10.6 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively, stated the document released by Hooda.
Haryana also provides 12,87,697 elderly constituting 81 per cent of its elderly population with Rs 500 to Rs 750 per cent month honorarium while Gujarat provides 7,21,052 elderly constituting 20.6 per cent of their population in the State Rs 400 per month. Haryana provides Rs 750 per month pension to 5,43,476 widows while Gujarat gives just Rs 400 per month to 85,176 widows. Similarly, Haryana gives Rs 2,0000 pension to freedom fighters while Gujarat, which is home of Mahatma Gandhi, gives just Rs 6,000 per month to them, Hooda said while talking to a group of journalists.
Moreover, taking the social welfare measure forward Haryana will be the first to launch Food Security scheme from August 20, birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, from each district headquarter. Apart from providing wheat and rice at Rs 2 per kg and Rs 3 per kg respectively, it would improvise the scheme and provide 2.5 Kg of pulses to each household per month at Rs 20 per kg rate giving a subsidy of Rs 40 per kg, Hooda said. The scheme would cover 28,84,000 household comprising Rs 1 crore 30 lakh people constituting 55 per cent population, Hooda said.
He, however, rejected Samajwadi Party comparing action against IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal with Ashok Khemka saying that proper procedure was followed in the latter case unlike Durga. Khemka was not suspended by the Haryana Government and even transfer happened after the court’s direction, he claimed. “Moreover, Khema has been transferred far less number of times during my Government than the he was during the previous regime.” But the discomfort of the Chief Minister over the proposed Congress rally at Jind was evident as he feigned ignorance whether Congress President Sonia Gandhi will participate in it.
The discord over the rally highlights the ongoing fight between Hooda and Rajya Sabha member Chowdhary Birender Singh in State. At the same time, to retain his hold over the traditional vote bank of Khaps, Hooda defended powerful Khap panchayats. He blamed media for highlighting only negative aspect of honour killing without trying to find out the positive work being done by traditional bodies.