Hodal wanting in basic facilities, infrastructure

Earlier known as Hassanpur, the Assembly was rechristened Hodal in 2009. Located at the southernmost part of Haryana, it represents 56 villages. Primarily a rural segment, its biggest urban area is Hodal town, which is struggling with issues of basic amenities despite the fact that it is second biggest town of Palwal district.

Advertisement

All three seats of Palwal district, including Hodal, were wrested by the Opposition parties despite a Modi wave in 2014. Congress leader Uday Bhan won the Hodal seat. “The most unfortunate thing about Hodal is that despite being located strategically on the National Highway connecting Delhi and Agra, it has failed to develop,” says Anil Dixit, a local resident.

With problems like unemployment and lack of adequate educational and health infrastructure, the segment is lacking in basic amenities like drinking water, good roads and proper sanitation. 

“With roads getting waterlogged after every downpour, I have not seen any improvement in the drainage in the past 15 years,” says another resident of Hodal. 

Mahender Sorot of Banchari village alleges that Hodal has been subjected to political discrimination as the MLAs in the past two terms have been from the Opposition. “Though the BJP has an advantage here, the selection of candidate will finally matter,” he says. 

Legislatorspeak 

Hodal is a victim of poor development due to political discrimination. People of the segment have been discriminated against because I am from the Congress. Not a single penny has been given in the MLA fund for  development, and the projects taken up by the earlier regime have been dropped. — Uday Bhan, congress

Oppositionspeak 

There was no discrimination in the grants provided to the segment. The segment has received grants worth over Rs 100 crore from the CM allocation and MP funds, which have been used in various developmental works in the past five years. The Congress MLA has failed to come up to the expectations of the people. — Jagdish Nayar, BJP leader

Total voters

1,77,210

96,994 Men

80,215 Women

1 Third gender