Deepender Hooda visits Hisar region, lashes at govt for failure to take measures

Congress Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda toured about 12 flood-affected villages and urban areas around Narnaund and Hansi subdivisions of the district today. He visited villages, including Bhatol Jatan, Thurana, Kumbha, Bhatla, Chainot and Ghiray, and met people to hear their grievances.

Hooda said that it was the failure on part of the BJP government, which had turned the situation of waterlogging into an alarming one and which had been causing large-scale damage. He said that nearly 10.80 lakh acres of crops across Haryana had been destroyed by the flooding. MP Jai Prakash accompanied him.

During the visit, villagers told the MP that excessive rainfall and lack of drain cleaning were the main causes of waterlogging. Crops in the fields have been ruined, and sowing of the next crop also seems uncertain, they said. Many also reported severe damage to their houses.

Hooda demanded that the government must immediately announce a relief package as states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Kashmir and Gujarat have already done. He stressed the state government to order a special girdawari and provide at least Rs 60,000 per acre compensation to farmers, with double compensation for those unable to sow the next crop. He further urged compensation for houses and shops damaged by the flooding, and the creation of special monitoring committees at the state and district levels to deliver relief on a war footing.

The MP said that waterlogging in Haryana was not just a natural disaster, but an example of administrative failure. The government should open compensation portals without delay as many villagers complained they remained inaccessible. Adequate pump-sets, pipelines, electricity connections and other necessary equipment must be provided for drainage, said Hooda while alleging that in many villages, relief material was shifted elsewhere after lying unused for days, no electricity points were set up, and even pre-monsoon drain cleaning was ignored. He blamed 11 years of wrong policies of the BJP government for failing to build new drains or clean the existing ones.

Hisar MP Jai Prakash added that he had raised the issue of waterlogging in Parliament, but the government paid no attention.