Govt misled High Court on dera issue: Hooda

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 18

Former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda has stated that the state government had misinformed and misled the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the assembling of Sirsa-based Dera Sachha Sauda followers at Panchkula prior to appearance of the dera head at the CBI court there.

“First, the state government told the High Court that Section 144, CrPC, had been imposed to check the entry of dera followers. Then, it stated that thorough screening was being done to ensure that nobody could carry any weapons to Panchkula. And when several people were killed in police firing, the government said the police had resorted to firing as the protesting dera followers had lethal weapons,” the former Chief Minister said while addressing a news conference here today.

The former Chief Minister demanded financial compensation for next of kin of the 40 persons killed during the said episode.

Hooda alleged that traders were getting harassed under the GST regime due to complicated provisions, lack of clarity and delay on part of the government in issuing the relevant notifications. Hooda maintained that if GST had to be implemented, it should be based on a simple and trader-friendly model and be applicable to petroleum products as well.

“Had GST been applicable to diesel, the price of diesel had been much lower than the prevailing rates and the price of all commodities would also have been lower due to a low cost of transportation,” he asserted.

He said the BJP regime had failed on all fronts and all sections of society were fed up with its functioning. He advised the state leadership to relinquish office or people would oust their regime.

Ex-CM to raise bajra non-procurement in Assembly

Jhajjar: The relay fast being observed by commission agents and farmers against non-procurement of bajra on Wednesday got a shot in the arm when former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda not only expressed his party’s solidarity with the protesters but also announced to raise the issue in coming Assembly session. “We will not let the Assembly function if the entire bajra crop is not procured before October 23,” said Hooda while addressing protesters at the grain market. Congress MLAs- Geeta Bhukkal and Raghubir Kadian-were also present. The termed the state government as anti-farmer and criticised it for denotifiying the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project.

Meanwhile, Narender Kumar, president of Commission Agents’ Association, said they would observe black Diwali in protest against non-procurement of bajra. “Five commission agents and farmers will sit on hunger strike on Diwali wearing black badges to register their protest,” he said. (Ravinder Saini)