Oppn ready to take on Khattar govt in Haryana Budget session

Chandigarh, Mar 4: The budget session of the Haryana Assembly beginning Friday is likely to be stormy with the Congress geared up to corner the ruling BJP-JJP coalition over law and order and the Centre’s new farm legislation, while the government is set to bring a possibly contentious “anti-conversion” bill.

The session will begin with Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya's address. Khattar, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the budget on March 10. Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced that the Congress will bring a no-confidence motion against the government.

It claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party combine has failed on all fronts. But the opposition party is focusing on the farmers' issue, claiming that the no-trust vote will make it clear who is with the farmers, thousands of whom are protesting at Delhi’s borders. Khattar says his government enjoys a majority in the House and has termed the proposed no-confidence motion an opposition attempt to signal its relevance.

A special investigation team has given its report on last year's spurious liquor tragedy and the CM has set up a one-member committee of the chief secretary on it. But the Congress is still expected to turn the heat on the government over the episode that claimed about 40 lives. The opposition will also take on the government over unemployment, law and order and the price of cooking gas and other essential commodities.

The ongoing tug of war between Khattar and Home Minister Anil Vij over the tenure of Director General of Police Manoj Yadava has also given ammunition to Congress to target the government. The home minister wants Yadava to go while Khattar appears to have backed the extension of his term. A bill against religious conversions through force or fraudulent means will be brought to the House during the session, Vij has said.The government will also introduce another bill enabling authorities to recover compensation from rioters and protesters for damage caused to public and private property. The state government is expected to highlight a “two-fold” increase the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) since 2014-15, when the Congress term ended.

The GSDP was then Rs 3.99 lakh crore and is now Rs 8.58 lakh crore, the CM has said earlier. Khattar has said excise revenue doubled during the BJP tenure – from Rs 3,697 crore collected as excise duty in 2013-14 to Rs 7,000 crore in the current financial year so far. The GST-VAT collection is similarly up, according to official statistics.