Surjewala joins issue with Ajay Chautala

Chandigarh, Apr 6 (UNI) Haryana Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala today ridiculed Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Ajay Singh Chautala for his reported statement criticising the Central farm loan waiver, commencement of various irrigation schemes and setting up of power stations across the state.

Wile reacting to the statement of Mr Chautala on these schemes , Mr Surjewala said the tall claims made by Mr Chautala were patent falsehood. He regretted that all these lies were made while paying tribute to the memory of his late grandfather and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Devi Lal.

He said the fact of the matter was that Mr Chautala and former chief minister Om Parkash Chautala were completely unnerved by the biggest ever loan waiver of farmers worth Rs 60,000 crore was initiated by the present Central government under the guidance and leadership of UPA Chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Mr Surjewala said that pro-farmer and pro-poor policies of Haryana Government led by Chief Minister Bhupuinder Singh Hooda, leading to waiver of electricity arrears scheme amounting to Rs 1600 crore, loan and interest waiver scheme of cooperative sector amounting to Rs 830 crore and other schemes of the state government had left the Chautala clan without any political agenda. Hence, they were making a last ditch attempt to hide behind half-backed truths and lies.

The Power Minister said that Mr Om Prakash Chautala spoke similar lies in the Vidhan Sabha regarding loan waiver for which he had been indicted and censured for misleading the House. ''Now his son was trying to mislead the people of the state by similar false claims,'' he added.

He said the truth of the entire matter was that Mr Chautala's statement that loan waiver of Rs 16514 crore was done in Haryana during the tenure of late Ch Devi Lal, was a complete lie. The truth is that under the ''loan and interest waiving scheme-1987'' brought during the Chief Ministership of late Ch Devi Lal, a loan worth only Rs 34.31 crore was waived, out of which Rs 4.50 crore were left in arrears and was paid by the Congress government in 1999, he added.

He said that similarly during the ''agriculture and rural debt scheme- 1990'' when Ch Devi Lal was Deputy Prime Minister, a sum of Rs 130.89 crore was waived, out of which the share of Haryana government was only Rs 65.45 crore. The Congress government in 1991 in Haryana had paid Rs 14.37 crore of unpaid arrears of this scheme.

''The claim of waiver of Rs 16,514 crore of loans in Haryana made by Mr Chautala was thus a patent lie and another attempt to hoodwink and mislead the people of Haryana,'' Mr Surjewala said.

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