Assocham pegs losses to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore due to ongoing violent agitation in Haryana

CHANDIGARH: Impressing upon the Haryana government and the Centre to immediately bring under control the deteriorating law and order situation under control, ASSOCHAM on Sunday said the ongoing violent agitation in Haryana has already dealt an estimated blow of Rs 18,000- 20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property and halting trade, industry, small business and transport.

Since Haryana shares borders with Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and is the transit route to a number of national highways and trunk railway lines, the collateral damage to the economic activities to other states in terms of loss to production, transport and movement of people would add a few thousands crores more to the overall loss to the national economy.

While the state government would assess the loss of damage to public property like burning of buses, private vehicles, railways stations, police stations, malls and hotels, the trade , industry and other businesses have come to almost complete halt in most of the districts, barring parts of Gurgaon, Rewari and other few areas on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway number 8. The trade and industry loss is maximum in the worst affected areas of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Jind, Gohana, Sonipat, Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat.

“The state administration has to be on top of the situation to control the anti-social elements, causing immense damage to the reputation of the state,” ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said.