‘Good governance to be poll plank’

Food and Supplies Minister Karan Dev Kamboj says that to tackle anaemia, especially among adolescent girls, the state government will soon start distribution of fortified flour in Karnal and Ambala districts and later on throughout Haryana. He claims that the Aadhaar seeding of PDS ration beneficiaries has helped in weeding out about 25 lakh ‘bogus’ beneficiaries in the state, thus saving Rs 400 crore of public money every year. He opines that the Opposition parties are ganging up against the BJP to divert attention from their internal dissension. Excerpts from an interview with Pradeep Sharma….  

The Food and Supplies Department has been a den of corruption, as foodgrains meant for poor people were reportedly diverted to the open market. What initiatives have the BJP government taken to set things right? 

After coming to power, the BJP government stumbled upon a huge scam in the Public Distribution System (PDS) following Aadhaar seeding of the beneficiaries. While 1.37 crore beneficiaries were drawing PDS ration in the state, the Central Government had pegged their number at 1.26 crore, resulting in less supply to some of them. However, the Aadhaar seeding of beneficiaries has helped in weeding out around 25 lakh ‘bogus’ persons. This has resulted in a net annual saving of about Rs 400 crore. At present, the total number of beneficiaries is 1.12 crore. Besides, transparency has been introduced in the tendering process in the department. Now, tenders are accepted only online, thus curtailing the scope for manipulation.

Congress MLA Karan Dalal had alleged during the last Vidhan Sabha session that the state government had deprived around 25 lakh beneficiaries of subsidised ration under the PDS; your comments?

It will not be correct to say that the state government has stopped the supply of subsidised ration to around 25 lakh beneficiaries. The supply has temporarily been put on hold till the government completes their Aadhaar seeding and verification. There is nothing wrong in weeding out ‘bogus’ beneficiaries. Any leftover beneficiary opting for Aadhaar seeding will be immediately included in the list of eligible beneficiaries. The Congress is politicising the issue for narrow political gains. The exercise has gone a long way in weeding out ‘fake’ beneficiaries, thus saving precious revenue of the state. The government has been providing ration to 1.12 crore genuine beneficiaries and it is not worried if more people get ration after their Aadhaar numbers have been seeded.

Haryana became the first state in the country to be ‘kerosene-free’ on November 1, 2016. What has been the progress on this front? 

On the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of Haryana on November 1, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared Haryana as the first ‘kerosene free’ state while launching a pilot project in seven districts. However, on June 1, 2017, Haryana became completely ‘kerosene free’, as the scheme had been extended to the whole state. Besides accolades from the Prime Minister, the Haryana model has been appreciated across India. Our government has been able to identify and remove about 4.62 beneficiaries who were earlier getting kerosene and subsidy on the LPG as well. The discontinuation of kerosene supply to the ‘dual beneficiaries’ has led to a net saving of Rs 100 crore every year to the state exchequer. 

The state government was toying with the idea of distribution of fortified flour through the PDS with a view to checking anaemia among the poor. Has any progress been made in this regard?

At present fortified flour is being distributed through the PDS in two blocks of Ambala district — Naraingarh and Barara — on a pilot basis. It has been found in a government survey that the consumption of fortified ‘atta’ is very effective in tackling anaemia, especially among adolescent girls. On the basis of the success of the pilot project, our government will start distribution of fortified 'atta' in all parts of Ambala and Karnal districts. Thereafter, the initiative will be replicated across the state with a view to taking care of the nutritional needs of the poor sections of society. In fact, to ensure complete transparency in the distribution of ‘atta’, HAFED, a state government undertaking, has been given the responsibility to manufacture and distribute fortified ‘atta’. 

The BJP came to power on the promises of “Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” and “zero tolerance to corruption” about four years ago. How far have these been fulfilled during your tenure?

During the 10-year rule of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, corruption was so rampant that scams had become the order of the day. The BJP came to power on October 26, 2014, and since then not even one scam had come to light. Complete transparency in governance is being observed and every decision is being taken on merit. In fact, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has led by example by initiating equal development projects in all Assembly segments, irrespective of which party MLAs represent the areas. Regional bias in development works, which was the hallmark of the previous government, is now a thing of the past. Besides, transparency in government job selections is a feather in the cap of our government, which has renewed the faith of the youth that merit is the only criteria for government jobs. We cannot say that corruption has been totally eliminated but good success has been made in this direction. Efforts are being made for a systemic change as regionalism and nepotism ruled the roost in the inefficient and corrupt system in the past. All right-thinking people are appreciating the path-breaking initiatives of our government for a systemic change. 

Your government has taken a lead in the use of information technology (IT) in governance. What have been the tangible benefits of the use of IT in administration and how has it benefited common people? 

The use of information technology in governance has paid rich dividends. The Aadhaar seeding of beneficiaries of social security schemes has led to weeding out of about 90,000 fake beneficiaries, including 60,000 whose addresses could not be traced. Similarly, the Aadhaar seeding of students has helped the government to weed out over four lakh ‘fake’ beneficiaries, who were shown as enrolled in government schools but were studying in private schools. The scholarship amount was being siphoned off by unscrupulous elements. The tendering process in all development works has been completely made online, leaving no scope for corrupt practices. The e-registration of land deals has gone a long way in checking corruption at the tehsil level. Besides, the government decision that the mutation of all land deals will be done within a week of e-registration has also helped in checking corruption to a good extent. Scams and irregularities in land deals during the 10-year Congress rule are too many to be counted, and the investigating agencies have taken some cases to a logical conclusion.

The general and Assembly elections in Haryana are due next year. The INLD and the BSP have entered into an electoral alliance, the Congress is getting aggressive and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also posing a challenge to the BJP. How do you see the political situation emerging in the run-up to the elections? 

The fact that all opposition parties are ganging up against the BJP shows how formidable the party has emerged as an organisation over the years. The INLD-BSP alliance had been a failure earlier and it would meet the same fate in the elections next year. The Congress is a divided house with different factions working at cross-purposes. In fact, there are several chief ministerial candidates in the Congress who are working against each other. Severe factionalism in the Congress will prove to be its nemesis. Opposition parties are too busy fighting among themselves rather than putting up a united front against the BJP. Recently, Congress MLA Karan Dalal wrote to the BSP supreme leader to sever ties with the INLD, calling the latter as “anti-Dalit” and “anti-poor”. AAP has hardly any presence in the state. In fact, the people of Delhi are reeling under the misrule of the government led by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal. This shows that our government, under the leadership of Manohar Lal Khattar, has grown from strength to strength in the last four years. The BJP is set for a better performance in the 2019 parliamentary and Assembly elections. 

What is going to be the main issue in the parliamentary and Assembly elections next year? 

For the BJP, good governance has always been a major issue in the elections. The party has been able to provide ‘corruption-free’ good governance in the country as well as in Haryana in the last four years. Unprecedented development across the state without any bias is a testimony to good governance. The BJP follows the principle of ‘Antyodaya’ propounded by Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay and our government has been able to extend the benefits of various schemes to the poor. The people of Haryana will vote for the good performance of the BJP governments at the Centre led by Narendra Modi and in the state under Manohar Lal Khattar in the last four years. We will seek votes on the basis of our performance in the last four years and the failure of the Opposition to take up issues of public welfare.

The opposition parties, especially the Congress, have been alleging that the BJP has failed to fulfil the major promises made in the 2014 election manifesto. What are your views?

It seems that the opposition parties have not read the manifesto of the BJP. In fact, our government has fulfilled over 80 per cent of the promises made in the election manifesto. The work on the remaining promises is in progress and these will be fulfilled before the next elections. In fact, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar regularly reviews the progress of our election-time promises at the meetings of the Council of Ministers. The opposition parties, including the Congress, have no right to find faults with our performance. The chorus of the Opposition over non-fulfillment of promises by the government is a ploy to divert the attention of the people from infighting in their parties. Had the Congress fulfilled its election-time promises, it would not have been placed third after the BJP and the INLD in the 2014 Assembly elections.  

Haryana faces an acute shortage of covered storage. What initiatives have the Food and Supplies Department taken to tackle the problem?

A provision of covered storage space for foodgrains, especially wheat and paddy, has always been a big challenge for Haryana in view of bumper crop production every year. During the 2018-19 season, Haryana has so far procured a record 87.27 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. Most of the procured foodgrains are at present stored in the open. In view of the massive storage capacity required, the government is going to construct steel silos under the public-private partnership. Though there is an acute shortage of covered storage space, there has been no report of damage to stored foodgrains during the last three years. 

Since the BJP came to power, various sections of state government employees have been on agitations. Why has the government not been able to redress the grievances of its employees?

Our government was the first in the country to implement the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for its employees. Besides, all sections of employees have benefited from various schemes and incentives announced by the government from time to time. In fact, ours was one of the governments to have introduced a weekly off day for police personnel. Hundreds of employees, who were recruited during the previous Congress government, were appointed by our government. Some vested interests are behind the agitations launched by employees of some departments who want to portray the BJP in a poor light in the run-up to the next elections. But the fact is that our government has always been ‘pro-employee’ and has taken several initiatives for their benefit in the last four years.