'Skewed' development during Congress rule: Haryana govt

Chandigarh, March 7: The BJP-led Haryana government on Saturday said that "inequitable" allocation of funds by the previous Congress regime during the past 10 years led to "skewed development" and "regional disparities" in the state.

The districts which received maximum funds for the development during the last regime included Rohtak, Panchkula, Rewari, Ambala, Jhajjar and Sonepat, as per second part of the 'White Paper on State Finances' for the period 2004-05 till 2013-14 released by the Haryana government.

Rolling out the data pertaining to development expenditure in Haryana, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, "HUDA had discriminated while allocating funds for the development in the state.The department spent maximum funds in Rohtak, Panchkula, Rewari and Ambala districts during the past 10 years."

A close look at the district-wise resources collected by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) during the period under reference and the corresponding funds allocated to these districts for works revealed that some districts like Rohtak, Panchkula, Rewari and Ambala received "far more" funds than were collected from these districts.

Districts like Rohtak, Rewari, Panchkula received funds for development from HUDA amounting to Rs 2,412 crore, 1,347 crore and 2,959 crore as against Rs 809 crore, 665 crore and 2,141 crore of funds generated from these districts respectively, as per White Paper.

A staggering sum of Rs 5,525 crore more was spent in 14 such districts, as per paper. However, HUDA spent just Rs 8,106 crore in Gurgaon as against Rs 15,633 crore as total resources generated from this city, as per the paper.

This indicates a skewed focus on some districts at the cost of others Haryana during the last ten years, said the paper. Pointing out another example of regional bias, the Chief Minister claimed that Haryana Rural Development Fund Administration (HRDF) Board also did not allocate funds for development in "correct" way.

He said HRDF spent more on few districts like Jhajjar, Rohtak and Sonipat despite lesser collection of rural funds like fee from these districts.

HRDF sanctioned Rs 359 crore, Rs 369 crore and Rs 462 crore for Rohtak, Sonipat and Jhajjar districts even as sum of Rs 59 crore, 195 crore and 22 crore were generated from these districts, respectively, as per paper.

Khattar, however, said districts like Karnal, Sirsa, Kaithal were allocated "lesser" funds despite higher resources generation from these places.

"It is observed that certain districts have been allocated a disproporionlatley large amount of funds for development of rural infrastructure when compared with receipts collected from these districts. This indicated inequitable allocation of funds for development giving rise to regional disparities in creation of rural infrastructure," the paper said.

PTI