Once envied for progress, Rohtak ‘battered’ after Jat stir

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 26

Not long ago, Rohtak used to be envied for its progress. In fact, during the two successive tenures as CM of Rohtak-based Bhupinder Singh Hooda, even the Opposition parties used to accuse the Congress government of Rohtak-centric development and step-motherly treatment to the rest of the state.

Nonetheless, the town has lost much and gained little during the first two years of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government, which is at the helm of affairs in Haryana now.

To begin with, lawlessness in Rohtak during the Jat agitation for reservation remain etched in public memory. Failing to take any lesson from the mishandling of the riot-like situation, the state authorities as well as local administrators continue with their apathetic approach towards public problems.

Most of projects announced by the BJP regime — the elevated railway track, elevated road and the plan to rid the town of traffic snarls with the commissioning of several multi-storey parking lots — remain on paper.

The condition of major state-run “autonomous” institutions based in Rohtak, including the PGIMS, Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) and the State University of Performing and Visual Arts (SUPVA) has only deteriorated .

“It is painful to observe rampant politics, casteism and power tussles at the institutions of higher learning. Things have gone from bad to worse with certain persons having dogmatic notions being installed on positions of authority,” laments a senior professor at a Rohtak-based university .

Though local MLA Manish Grover has been elevated to the level of a state minister, what difference it makes to the pace of the town’s progress remains to be seen.