Chandigarh, Jan 12,2023: Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said Haryana is not running a double engine, but a “two-faced government”.

“This government has done the work of increasing inflation three times, debt four times, crime five times and corruption six times in Haryana, while the government’s achievement in terms of providing employment and development remained zero,” the former chief minister told the media here.

He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana was a complete success. “There was tremendous participation of the people in both the phases, lakhs of people everywhere joined the yatra.”

The Leader of Opposition said Gandhi interacted with all sections and people opened their hearts out to him.

“The first phase started from Nuh, where people raised the problems of roads, electricity and water. During the journey from Nuh to Ambala, the poor condition of roads showed us the quality of governance.

“Except the National Highway, all other roads have only potholes. The government is unable to handle even the schools, colleges, ITIs and hospitals built by the Congress government,” he said.

The two-time Chief Minister pointed out that during the yatra, Gandhi met ex-servicemen and medical students protesting against the bond policy. “The government put pressure on the students and ended their agitation. The Congress demands that the bond policy imposed on medical students should be withdrawn. Employees’ delegation met Rahul Gandhi and raised the issue of OPS.”

Hooda assured the employees that they would be given the benefit of old pension like in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal, when the Congress government is formed in Haryana.

“In the second phase also, Rahul Gandhi met many social and civil organisations, including farmers, farmer leaders, workers, employees, ex-servicemen, former vice-chancellors, businessmen, MSME operators, chowkidars, sarpanch, sanitation workers and MNREGA workers,” he said.

“All the farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait and Yudhveer Singh, put forward many problems of the farmers, including the guarantee of MSP. Farmers also talked to Rahul Gandhi regarding the prices of sugarcane in the state,” he said.

During the yatra in Karnal, Gandhi met the delegation of other Backward Class (OBC) community and de-notified tribes and listened to their problems. “In Karnal, he met Haryana’s Bhim awardee, Arjuna awardee, Dronacharya awardee players. Boys and girls talked to Rahul Gandhi about the closure of government schools and the shortage of teachers in schools. The youth delegation put all the issues, including rising unemployment and corruption in recruitment before Rahul Gandhi. The youth and ex-servicemen voiced their views against the Agniveer scheme,” he said.

Hooda said during the yatra, people also raised the issue of Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP). “People have named it Permanent Pareshani Patra because it is being used by the government to cut the ration cards of 10 lakh families. The income of the family has been shown to be increased by eight to 10 times. Even the ration cards of the children of the age group of 4 to 5 years were cut by showing the income of Rs 15,000 to 20,000.”

Presenting the figure of rising debt, Hooda said at present, Haryana has a debt of Rs 3.25 lakh crore and a liability of Rs 1.22 lakh crore.

“If the government feels that this figure is not correct, then it should immediately issue a white paper,” he added.