BPL beneficiaries’ issue rocks House; Cong, INLD train gun on Saini govt

The issue of an unusual spike in the BPL beneficiaries in Haryana rocked the Assembly today with the Opposition Congress and INLD training their guns on the BJP government alleging that it exposed saffron party’s much-touted slogan of “Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas”.

Participating in the discussion during a debate on the Governor’s address, senior Congress legislators, including Ashok Arora, Aftab Ahmed and Geeta Bhukkal, alleged that over two-thirds of Haryana’s population in the BPL category showed sorry state of affairs in the state under the BJP’s 10-year rule. The members wanted Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to take cognisance of the matter.

Shameful for state

While the BJP is taking about 'Viksit Bharat', 70 per cent of the population in the BPL category is a matter of shame for the state which was among the top states in India in terms of per capita income.

--Ashok Arora, Congress MLA

Initiating the discussion for the Congress, Arora, a former Speaker, said while the BJP was taking about “Viksit Bharat”, 70 per cent of the population in the BPL category was a matter of shame for the state, which was among the top states in terms of per capita income.

Ahmed, the Nuh MLA, said the BPL figures exposed the BJP’s ‘misinformation campaign’ under which nothing concrete had been done for the public. "The government figures seem to have brought to the fore the shocking ground reality that no worthwhile development has taken place in the state in the last 10 years,” Ahmed alleged.

Asking CM Saini to take ‘cognisance” of the matter, Jhajjar MLA Geeta Bhukkal alleged that the BJP's announcements were made merely to divert attention of the people from real issues. Meanwhile, INLD’s Dabwali MLA Aditya Devilal alleged that high BPL percentage in the state reflected the sorry state of affairs in the BJP regime. “The figures also exposed how a majority of the Haryanvi population, which once consumed wholesome food, was in the grip of malnutrition,” he alleged.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mahipal Dhanda tried to make a brief intervention arguing that since the BPL income limit had been revised from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh per annum, the BPL beneficiaries could be more. However, Speaker Harvinder Kalyan intervened saying that the Chief Minister could answer these queries during his reply to the Governor’s address.