Opposition barbs fly thick & fast

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 26

It was the Opposition’s day out in the Assembly today with bigwigs, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Choudhry and Abhay Chautala, putting a defensive government on the mat during the debate on the Governor’s Address.

Though the BJP-JJP government’s floor management and response to Opposition charges remain much to be desired, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar promised a befitting reply during his reply tomorrow.

The Congress charge was led by Tosham MLA Choudhry, who blasted the government on a variety of issues, including spiralling unemployment, farmers’ plight, faulty excise policy, paddy scam and defective policy for protection of the Aravallis.

“Though the BJP and JJP had promised the moon to voters ahead of Assembly elections, the common minimum programme of the alliance government failed to move beyond formation of a committee,” she pointed out.

Choudhry was supported by Jhajjar MLA Geeta Bhukkal, who came down heavily on the government over rising crime, state of education and raw deal to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.

“While the state failed to get any grant from the Centre for the post-matriculation scholarship scheme for SC students in the past two years, the SC Commission was yet to be notified even after approval from the state,” she asserted.

Outside the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Hooda termed the government a “complete failure” on all fronts. He demanded a probe either by the CBI or a High Court Judge into multi-crore paddy procurement scam.

Lone INLD legislator Abhay termed the Governor’s Address a “bundle of lies”. He alleged that the state government had failed to hold a fair probe into the alleged scam into paddy procurement.

“Khattar had announced formation of a committee comprising Hooda and me in the last Assembly session to probe the paddy procurement scam, but it was never notified. No action was taken on inputs sent to the state government regarding various irregularities in paddy procurement,” he stated.

The government came under attack from JJP and Independent MLAs. Narnaund MLA Ram Kumar Gautam took on government for its failure to raise old-age pension to Rs 5,100 per month.

Independent MLA from Meham Balraj Kundu demanded a special investigation team to inquire the alleged multi-crore sugar mill scam in Rohtak.

Jat stir violence

A demand for withdrawal of cases registered against “innocent youths” for violence during the Jat quota agitation in 2016 echoed in the House. The issue was raised by Badli MLA Kuldeep Vats. Hooda raised the demand, saying when a “compromise” had been reached, cases should be withdrawn.

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