Former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Congress party welcomes the Supreme Court’s suo motu cognisance of the Aravalli issue.
“We had raised this issue in the Assembly, but the government kept avoiding discussion. The Congress also proposed a short-duration discussion, which the government rejected. The Forest Survey of India report clearly states that the destruction of the Aravalli range will have the most significant impact on Haryana. This will increase pollution and destroy these hills, which act as the 'lungs' of Haryana,” he stated.
Hooda questioned the government and said it must provide clear answers. “What is the Haryana government's stand on this issue? Why did the government not protect the Aravalli range in the Supreme Court, and why has no action been taken against the illegal mining mafia to date? The government did not give any satisfactory answer in the Assembly,” he stated.
He said the people of the state have witnessed several instances showing how fearlessly the mining mafia is destroying the Aravalli range. “On July 19, 2022, the mining mafia murdered a DSP in Nuh. On January 1, 2022, five laborers died due to a landslide caused by illegal mining in the Dadum area of Bhiwani. All these incidents occurred in the Aravalli range. It is clear that the government does not need new rules to destroy the Aravalli range; the mafia is already encroaching upon this mountain range through illegal mining,” he pointed out.
Answering questions from journalists at his residence, Hooda said the BJP government is deliberately excluding people of Haryana from state government jobs. “The figures for document verification in the Haryana Power Utilities (HPU) Assistant Engineer recruitment are extremely worrying. Out of 214 candidates in the General category, only 29 with Haryana domicile have been selected. This is a direct injustice to the youth of Haryana and a blatant violation of their rights,” he stated.
Hooda said Haryana has become the number one state in the country in terms of unemployment, yet local youth are not being given opportunities in recruitment. “This is a deliberate policy of the BJP. They not only want to hand over Haryana's jobs to outsiders, but by doing so, they are also systematically changing the state's demographics,” he added.
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