Haryana Budget Session from today, likely to be dominated by Bhiwani incident

Tribune News Service

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, February 19

A big part of the Budget Session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, which begins tomorrow, is likely to revolve around cows — stray cattle, the plight of cow shelters, the activism of cow vigilantes and the “murder” of Rajasthan men in Haryana’s Bhiwani on suspicion of being cow smugglers.

Likely to be a stormy affair, the main Opposition party, the Congress, will try to corner the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party alliance over the kidnapping and murder of Rajasthan men allegedly by cow vigilantes and the alleged failure of the Nuh police in preventing the deaths.

The death of 45 cows at a shelter in Karnal, the menace of stray cattle and the inability of the district administration to curb it will be taken up by the Opposition.

The implementation of the old pension scheme, the law and order situation, allegations against Minister Sandeep Singh, the protest by the sarpanches and e-tendering, the growing unemployment and the rising cases of drug addiction are among the other issues the Opposition intends to raise during the Budget Session which will be held in two phases.

While the session will begin with the Governor’s address tomorrow, it will be followed by a discussion on the address over the next two days. The Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the Budget on February 23 followed by a recess till March 16. The House will again meet from March 17 to 22 when the discussion on the Budget will be held before it is passed.

Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party meeting was chaired by former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today.

Coming out in support of the employees, he condemned the lathicharge on the employees gathered in Panchkula demanding the old pension scheme. He said the employees were protesting for their legitimate demands.

Hooda said the Congress fully supports the demand of the employees and promised to strongly raise the issue in the Budget Session. “If the present government does not accept the demands of the employees, a decision will be taken to implement the OPS in the very first Cabinet meeting after the formation of the Congress government in the state. The old pension scheme has already been implemented in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh,” he said.

Hooda said the party MLAs discussed party strategy in the Assembly in detail and would raise family identity card, cut in pension of senior citizens, cut in the BPL card, illegal mining, the NGT cases, unemployment, demand for old pension scheme, allegations of molestation against the minister and the plight of gaushalas.

The Congress MLAs discussed various issues like the government’s attitude towards sportspersons and the approval of the fourth floor in residential areas and other issues in the coming session.

Stormy affair expected

• Stray cattle, plight of cow shelters, activism of cow vigilantes and ‘murder’ of Rajasthan men in Bhiwani village to dominate session
• Other issues to be raised will be implementation of old pension scheme, law and order situation, allegations against Minister Sandeep Singh, protest by sarpanches and e-tendering process
• Rising unemployment and drug addiction will also be the topics of discussion

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