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Govt must shun populism for state’s growth: Haryana Governor
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News service

Chandigarh, November 4
Indicating Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government’s resolve to move from “populism” to “realism”, Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki today underlined the BJP's mantra of “minimum government, maximum governance” even as the Congress accused the government of pursuing RSS agenda. The BJP legislators endorsed their commitment to the RSS agenda of “strengthening nationalism”.

Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki during the Assembly session in Chandigarh on Tuesday. Tribune Photo: Manoj Mahajan

Delivering his maiden address to the newly constituted 13th Haryana Assembly, Solanki almost ran down the previous Congress regime, nearly accusing it of “inefficient financial management” and “wasteful expenditure” while holding it responsible for “shortage of electricity” in the first Governor’s address with “a bite” to it in many years.

Drawing the roadmap for the state, the Governor highlighted the government’s intention of adopting and replicating PM Narendra Modi-led Central government schemes in the state looking at providing “accountable, transparent and participatory governance”.

In an address that had “political undertones”, the Governor pointed out that the “decisive mandate” in the recent elections demonstrated the people’s yearning “for a corruption-free and transparent” development process. With "lop-sided development" being a sore wound for the Congress, the Governor observed that his government would tackle “the legacy of opaque decision-making” and unfair distribution of resources and reiterated the government’s commitment to plugging all “missing” links.

Reaffirming that the government would review “inefficient financial management” that had strained the public exchequer, Solanki said the efforts would be made to explore new avenues to increase growth. While Haryana seems all set to embrace “Digital Haryana” started on the lines of “Digital India” for transparency in governance, the “Swachh Bharat Mission” would be strengthened by increasing people’s participation.

Solanki said that health and education would get top priority, the government would work on a multi-pronged strategy to improve adverse sex ratio in the state and crime against women would not be tolerated. He said that the new government would be “guided by the spirit of ‘rurban’ (rural-urban) to end the rural-urban divide” by developing smart townships with modern amenities.

Solanki assured that efforts would be made for early completion of the Sutlej-Yamuna-Link Canal and a renewed attempt to remove legal bottlenecks in the commissioning of the Hansi-Butana-Link Canal. He added that the state government would take all necessary steps to amicably defend Haryana’s other legitimate rights, including pending inter-state issues with the neighbouring states

Former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma alleged the “Governor had read out the RSS agenda”, causing a furore among the treasury benches.