Haryana CM Nayab Saini counts works cleared in Bhupinder Hooda regime as own; DIPRO suspended

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, July 26

In an embarrassment to the BJP government, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s speech mentioned the works sanctioned and initiated during the Congress regime in a public function held in Fatehabad yesterday.

Give report in 48 hours, DC told

• Haryana Chief Secretary has placed the District Information and Public Relations Officer of Fatehabad district under suspension for providing wrong information. The Chief Secretary’s office issued a memorandum on Friday and directed Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner to conduct a fact-finding inquiry and fix responsibility of the erring official(s) for initiating disciplinary proceedings against them. The DC was told to submit a report within 48 hours through Divisional Commissioner Hisar on how incorrect information was forwarded to the government

The incident turned into a hot political issue with the Congress leaders turning the heat on the BJP leaders on development works.

The state government then placed the District Information and Public Relations Officer (DIPRO) under suspension on charges of providing incorrect information and ordered an inquiry into the entire episode.

Among the many works counted by Chief Minister Saini during the meeting included six works – multi-level parking at Thana road in Fatehabad town, Heritage park, a football academy in Dariyapur village, grain markets in Fatehabad and Tohana towns besides Polytechnic colleges in Dhangar and Jamalpur villages which were approved by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government.

Officials say that the works were initiated during the Congress government though they were completed during the BJP government and the previous Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had inaugurated and dedicated these projects to the public.

However, it was an embarrassing moment for local BJP leaders sitting on the dais when the CM counted these works as the achievements of the BJP. “Football academy, costing Rs 4 crore, was approved in 2012 when the then Union Sports Minister Ajay Makan and then Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar got it done. As there has been no maintenance during the BJP government, it is in tatters,” said a sports official. Similarly, foundation stones of multilevel parking and polytechnic projects were laid in 2013.

Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda during his Sirsa visit today commented that the BJP government has no development works to showcase as its achievements. “The way this government suspended the DIPRO, they will have to suspend officials across the state as this government has no achievements to name as its own. All the works which were being claimed by this government were approved and initiated by our government,” claimed Hooda.

Congress state president Udai Bhan said that the DIPRO merely put up the record of the works completed in the past decade.

Congress national secretary Vineet Punia said that instead of making a public official the scapegoat, the Chief Minister should own moral responsibility and resign. “After all, the Chief Minister is expected to know the facts being stated from a public platform. Do the BJP MLAs, former MPs and BJP leaders, who were clapping on the false claims of the CM, have no accountability? What can we say for a CM, whose speech is decided at the level of a district-level PR official?” he said.