Punjab has fallen behind under SAD-BJP govt: Bhupinder Singh Hooda

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today launched a scathing attack on the SAD-BJP government in Punjab saying that the state had fallen behind on all fronts under the current dispensation.


"Punjab is our (Haryana's) elder brother. We are two children of the same mother (Haryana was carved out from the larger state of Punjab in 1966).

"But I feel sad that Punjab has fallen way behind," Hooda said during his address at the 'Rashtriya Ekta' rally here on the occasion of the death anniversary of former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh.

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed, Punjab Congress President Pratap Singh Bajwa and a number of state Congress leaders were present on the occasion.

Comparing his state with Punjab, Hooda said that Haryana was marching ahead in all fields. Even fuel prices were higher in Punjab (due to VAT and other local taxes) than in Haryana, he averred.

Turning to the recent issue of Akali Dal leaders allegedly trying to politicise the issue of some Sikh farmers being asked to give up their land in Haryana's Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts, Hooda said, "I will ensure that these (Sikh) farmers get ownership (of the land)".

"If these farmers had been alloted land (on lease) by former Punjab Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon, I will ensure they are not displaced and are given ownership rights (for the land)," he said.

There are nearly 3,500 Sikh families in the two Haryana districts who have been living there for over five decades. These farmers cultivate about 15,000 acres of land which they received on lease.

Paying tributes to Beant Singh, who was assassinated here on August 31, 1995, Hooda said it was because of sacrifices by people like him that the country was able to stand up to forces who wanted to see its disintegration.