In 6-minute address, Guv spells out govt initiatives

Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 20

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s recent win in the MC elections and the Jind Assembly bypoll is a vindication of its government’s policies and programmes, said Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya on the opening day of the Budget session here on Wednesday.

In his address to the Assembly, he further said, “The sifarish-free recruitment has enthused the public. The government continues to usher in newer and bolder governance reforms in keeping with the sentiments of all sections of society,” he said.

The Governor dismissed the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal with a brief mention of the government’s commitment to construct it, while he dwelt on the construction of upstream storage dams for better utilisation of floodwaters of the Yamuna. He read out the address for a tad over six minutes before saying that he considered it to be already read by members of the Assembly.

In six minutes, the Governor touched upon several initiatives of the Manohar Lal Khattar government in the past four years. A dedicated authority for the welfare of farmers, electronic payments to them, the government’s resolve to achieve ODF++ status, 56,000 government jobs on merit, 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker sections and 22 medals in the Commonwealth Games found mention.

The increase in sex ratio to 914 girls per 1,000 boys on the back of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme, reduction in the maternal mortality ratio by 26 points, fall in the under-five mortality from 43 to 37 per 1,000 live births also figured prominently in the address.

The government’s ambitious programme to develop five cities along the KMP corridor as a part of the “Panchgram” vision was listed among the achievements.

The Governor said Haryana was well on its way to becoming the first state in the country to disburse first quarterly instalment of Rs2,000 to each of over 10.5 lakh small and marginal farmer families under the newly launched Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.

Leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala said the government did not want the Governor to read out the entire address because it had nothing to show as its achievement.