Haryana's main opposition party INLD today blamed the Manohar Lal Khattar government for chock-a-block situation witnessed in Gurgaon after heavy rains, saying BJP only believes in "hollow slogans" without taking any concrete steps to tackle basic things.
"They change Gurgaon's name to Gurugram. The tall claims about the development undertaken in the millennium city get exposed in just one hour of heavy rains. Vehicles got stuck in massive traffic jams trapping young, old, women, children, sick and ailing for up to 16 hours.
"The government is to be blamed for the mess witnessed in Gurgaon and not anyone else...It has little concern about people's problems," INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala told reporters here.
Attacking the BJP government, the Leader of Opposition, said "If this heavy rain was to come in entire Haryana at one go, then situation would be as worse as witnessed in Gurgaon."
"Where was the government when people were stuck for hours. The government which fails to protect the interests of the people has no right to stay in power," he said.
Long tailbacks were witnessed in gridlocked roads in Gurgaon last two days due to severe waterlogging on National Highway-8 after heavy rains lashed Delhi's satellite city, leaving thousands of commuters stranded and forcing authorities to clamp prohibitory orders near Hero Honda chowk.
Schools were also ordered to be shut down for two days.
The prohibitory orders were lifted last night after the situation on the roads normalised but overnight rains contributed to slow traffic movement causing trouble to commuters.
Chautala claimed the BJP government only believes in giving slogans, just to divert the attention of the people from real issues.
"From time to time, they keep on coming out with one thing or the other. These days they are going gung-ho about their claim to revive the (mythical) Saraswati river. They are only filling which was once river's course with water from the tubewell. They are wasting crores of rupees on this. Everyone knows they do such things, like they talked about Beti Bachao- Beti Padhao, Swachh Haryana, Happening Haryana, teaching Gita etc. Now, likewise they are misleading people about Saraswati river," Chautala claimed.
He also attacked Haryana government for promoting PM Crop insurance scheme, alleging it was an "anti-farmers" policy, aimed to "benefit only private insurance companies".
Chautala hit out at state agriculture minister Om Prakash Chankar for promoting the scheme whereby premiums are "compulsorily deducted" from farmers accounts in banks and cooperative societies.
"It is not necessary that farmers' crop shall get damaged by natural calamity every year. It is possible that he gets good crop in a year. Even if he has good crop, he will have to pay for insurance," he claimed.
Chautala claimed that premium amounting to Rs 300 to Rs
500 per acre depending upon crops are deducted by cooperative societies from farmers accounts.
"If I am a member of (cooperative) society, money depending upon crop like Rs 300, 400, 500 per acre will be deducted from society money. Only society will inform him (farmer) about deduction of premium which has been given to insurance company," he said.
Farmers who have Kisan Credit card will also to pay for crop insurance, he said.
"Now it is very surprising that if my (credit) limit is Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 lakh will be deducted which is 2 per cent as crop insurance from it," he said.
He claimed a sum of Rs 900 crore as state farmers' premium alone will go to private insurance companies as far as cooperative societies are concerned.
He further claimed farmers will get compensation for crop loss if a whole village is affected by any natural calamity.
"Companies will compensate only if crop of whole village gets damaged due to calamity like hailstorm as insurance companies are considering village as unit for paying compensation. It is a cheating with our farmers," he alleged.
"The BJP government is devising new methods to loot farmers," he said.
Meanwhile, Chautala demanded the government should come out with a "white paper" stating to all whom it has provided the security.
"Our charge is that even ordinary BJP workers have been provided with security. The government should come out with a white paper and tell the public the nature of threat faced by all those to whom the security has been given," he said.
Chautala alleged that the government was showing bias in providing security.
"While Congress' State unit president in Haryana has been provided with security, my party's state unit chief has got none," he claimed.
