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In a move to woo the peasant class before the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced to set up a committee under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Birender Singh, to look into the 'draconian law', under the provisions of which a farmer's land can be auctioned to recover the money which he borrows from a bank but fails to return.
"We want to work out something so that a farmer is not deprived of his land and the means of sole livelihood. The money can be recovered by other means, such as giving his land on lease," said Hooda. During his reply on the Governor's address today, the CM said the announcement should not be seen as election-related. "When the Congress came to power in Haryana in 2005, the first thing I did was to waive off power arrears of Rs 1,600 crore. There were no elections then, but I took the step in the interest of people, which I have again done now and a number of times in the past ," he said.
Yesterday Congress legislator from Kaithal and President of All India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, had forcefully demanded withdrawal of the 'black Act' against the farmers by which their land could be auctioned for non-payment of the bank loan. Surjewala has been demanding this for two years, at different forums.
The CM said, "We had a dream of making Haryana number one state of the country and today I am happy to announce Haryana is number one in many aspects. Haryana stood 14th in the country in the per capita investment, while today it was on top."
Haryana's per capita income of Rs 67,848 was next only to Goa. The CM said the state government's annual plan was Rs 2300 crore ye in the year 2005-06, which had risen to Rs 10,000 crore now, a jump of 500 per cent.
The UPA government's debt waiver scheme had benefited as many as 7.15 lakh farmers in Haryana.The Haryana government had fixed floor rates of land to benefit the people. For land acquisition too the affected people were compensated handsomely. He said Haryana was also paying the highest sugarcane price to the farmers anywhere in the country. The CM said the government was committed to add 4000 MW of additional power to the existing power availability in the state.
As much as 57 per cent work on the 1200 MW Khedar, Hisar power plant was complete and the plant would come into operation within this year. The state government was making all efforts to improve infrastructure in Haryana, said the chief minister. The government had also taken the initiative in improving the education standard in the state. In the last four years, 30 ITIs and 160 polytechnic institutes had been opened in the state. A number of scholarships for SC/BC and poor students had been announced.The government was also giving 100 square yard of plots to the SC/BC and the poor people, he said. Hooda also announced hike in the money paid to pensioners, freedom fighters, unemployed, physically challenged persons, numberdars, members of Panchayats, Zila Parishads and village chowkidars.
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