‘2.25 lakh houses before 2022’

INTERVIEW

Kavita Jain, Minister for Women and Child Development and  Urban Local Bodies, says that the Central Government’s flagship “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” programme has made a perceptible change in the mindset of the people of Haryana towards the girl child, besides improving the gender ratio (922/1,000). She hopes that the Haryana Government will be able to construct 2.25 lakh affordable dwelling units for the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana well before the deadline of 2022 of the Central Government. Excerpts from an interview with Pradeep Sharma...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the NDA government’s flagship ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme from Panipat on January 22, 2015. Yours Women and Child Development Ministry was the coordinating ministry for the implementation of the programme in Haryana. How successful has it been in the state, especially against the backdrop that Haryana has an adverse gender ratio? 

The implementation of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme was a challenging task for our government as Haryana was at the bottom with regard to the gender ratio (832/1,000) in the 2011 Census. We embarked on its implementation, making it a mass movement with the support of various stakeholders. The achievements of Haryana girls in different fields, sports or beauty contests, helped in changing the centuries-old mindset of people. While the gender ratio has improved to 922/1,000 recently, there is a perceptible change in people’s mindset towards the girl child. The Central Government has given the Nari Shakti Award to the state for the successful implementation of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme and consistent improvement in the gender ratio. Besides, the infant mortality rate has also come down and enrolment of girls in schools has gone up significantly. Recently, the Central Government had honoured Yamunanagar district for achieving 100 per cent enrolment of girls in schools. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also honoured Sonepat district for the implementation of the PC&PNDT Act on the occasion of the third anniversary of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign at Jhunjunu in Rajasthan on  March 8 this year.

While on the one hand, we talk about successful implementation of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign, on the other, crime against women in Haryana has become common. Cases of rape, molestation, dowry death and honour killing are reported regularly, bringing a bad name to the state. What do you have to say? 

Crime against women is a matter of concern for the state government. Cases of crime against women, which went unreported earlier, are now being reported after the opening of women police stations, introduction of zero FIR and the launch of Durga Vahini App etc. Various stakeholders, including government agencies, must come forward to sensitise society about crime against women. The government, on its part, has come out with strict laws such as capital punishment for persons convicted of rape of girls below 12 years of age. Besides, six fast-track courts are being set up to try gender crimes. While society can play a vital role in checking crime against women, the government could ensure that the guilty is punished. However, the issue should not be politicised.

The Opposition says that the state government has failed to tackle crime against women. How do you respond to that charge? Also, what other steps the state government is taking to tackle crime against women?

As I have said earlier, we should not politicise the issue. It is not that crimes have surged suddenly during our regime and there was no crime against women during the governments of the Congress and the INLD. We are sensitive towards the issue of crime against women and the Opposition should supplement government efforts to firm up a strategy to check such cases. Like ‘zero-tolerance to corruption’, the state government is moving ahead with ‘zero-tolerance to crime against women’. Following announcement by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the state government has decided to suspend some benefits such as social pension, arms licence and driving licence of the accused against whom charges have been framed in a court of law in any crime against women. Besides, Rs 22,000 will be provided to the rape victim for hiring a private lawyer of her confidence. Similarly, action will be taken against the inquiry officer for not completing an inquiry related to a rape case within a month and an eve-teasing case within 15 days. Besides, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court will be requested to issue necessary instructions to all district courts that if a woman attends a court as a witness, her statement should be recorded the same day.

What is the status of “Sakhi”, a one-stop centre for women affected by violence, announced by the BJP government with much fanfare after coming to power? 

“Sakhi” is a one-stop centre to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces, under one roof and facilitate immediate, emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services, including healthcare. These centres have been set up in Karnal, Gurugram, Faridabad, Hisar, Rewari, Bhiwani and Narnaul districts. Till now, 3,186 cases (women along with their children)  have been dealt with in these centres. The Chief Minister has approved setting up of one-stop centres in all districts. 

The BJP came to power in the state in 2014 on the slogans of ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas’ and ‘zero tolerance to corruption’. What has been the progress in this regard during almost four years of your government?

People of Haryana had voted the BJP to power on the two slogans as they were fed up with other parties, which indulged in corruption, regionalism and nepotism. During my tenure as Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Haryana became the first state in the country to go in for direct benefit transfer (DBT) of social security pensions. Similarly, in urban local bodies corruption has been tackled to a large extent through the use of information technology and minimising human intervention in the administration. A majority of the services in urban local bodies have been made online, which has gone a long way in checking corruption. Common Service Centres set up in more than half of the 82 urban local bodies across the state for the delivery of citizen services through the electronic mode have also helped in checking corruption.

Why has urban infrastructure failed to take care of the rising population in Haryana. In the recent ‘ease of living’ rankings released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, only three Haryana cities figure in the top 100, that too, quite low — Faridabad (72), Karnal (82) and Gurugram (88).

When our party formed the government on October 26, 2014, urban infrastructure was in a mess. There was no coordination among various stakeholder departments, leaving much to be desired. During the 10-year Congress government headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the focus was more on giving licences to big builders to develop residential and commercial projects rather than on development of infrastructural facilities in cities, especially the National Capital Region (NCR). However, we have been able to streamline governance and sort out coordination issues among various departments such as urban local bodies, public health engineering, Haryana Shehari Vikas Pradhikaran and Haryana State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation. Now, in collaboration with the Central Government, infrastructure upgrade is in progress in a majority of 82 urban local bodies. The BJP government headed by Manohar Lal Khattar is committed to transparency in the grant of change of land use (CLU).

The Urban Local Bodies Department is the coordinating ministry for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana that intends to provide housing for all by 2022. What is the progress on the housing projects under the scheme to provide affordable houses to identified beneficiaries in the state?

The Haryana Government has taken giant strides towards housing for all by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. During the statewide survey for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 3.60 lakh applications were received and of which 2.25 lakh eligible beneficiaries, were selected after scrutiny. The Central Government has approved the detailed project report for the construction of dwelling units for 2.25 lakh beneficiaries in 80 towns of the state. While the groundwork on housing projects is going on at several places, the scheme will be formally kicked off in two or three months. Haryana should be able to construct 2.25 lakh dwelling units even before the 2022 deadline. 

The Assembly and Parliamentary elections in Haryana are due next year. How do you see the political scenario emerging in the wake of the Congress stepping up the attack on your government and the INLD forming an alliance with the BSP?

Both parties, which had earlier ruled the state for many years, have repeatedly disappointed the people of Haryana. The Congress’ 10-year rule under Bhupinder Singh Hooda was marred by rampant regionalism and nepotism, besides questionable change of land use deals. At present the Congress is facing acute factionalism. There are factions led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar, Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Chaudhry and AICC media in charge Randeep Surjewala. As far as the INLD-BSP alliance is concerned, both parties had been out of power for a long time and are desperately trying by return to power by all means. The recent elections have shown that the popularity of the INLD has been declining. The BJP will emerge the clear winner in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections next year. People now vote for well-knit organisations and performing parties rather than opportunistic alliances between faction-ridden parties.

What have been the major achievements of your government during the last almost four years?

“Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas” perhaps has been the major achievement of our government. During the previous regimes of the Congress and the INLD, regionalism ruled the roost with certain pockets getting the lion’s share of development. During the last almost four years, all 90 Assembly constituencies witnessed equal development, a fact even Opposition MLAs acknowledge. Nepotism in job selections, which was the hallmark of the previous Congress and INLD governments, is a thing of the past and all jobs are offered on merit alone. The previous Congress government earned the dubious distinction of “Dharti, bharti and badli sarkar” (dubious land deals, questionable job selections and non-transparent transfers). The BJP has ushered in a new regime rooted in transparency and fair play.

And what do you think has been the biggest failure of your government or any project that it could not initiate?

I will not say that we have failed on any front. During our regime, there had been three or four major law and order situations but the state government took timely action to tackle them. Haryana successfully came out of these difficult times. We have embarked on a mission to usher in systemic change and it is bound to take some time. We are hopeful that we will be able to put a new transparent system in place in the next five years when Haryana’s voters give us another chance to form the government.

Various state government employees, including of departments headed by you such as anganwadi workers and safai karamchari, seem to be perpetually on agitation. Your comments?

There is no problem with employees protesting in a peaceful and democratic way without disrupting essential services. The government usually takes a sympathetic view of various demands of the employees from time to time. The state government has accepted the major demands of safai karamcharis and anganwadi workers, while other demands are being considered favorably. In fact, our government has been the most pro-employee government in the past several decades. Instead of going on agitation, employee unions should put forth their demands to the government in a democratic way. We are sensitive to their genuine demands.