Chandigarh, April 29: Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that for the last eight and a half years, the present state government is working for the welfare of the general public with the spirit of public service. “We have shown that even a politician can do public service while being in governance; this is the biggest achievement of our tenure,” he said. The Chief Minister was speaking at a programme in Chandigarh on Friday late evening.

He said that 3.5 crore people of Haryana are his family and the state government has brought many radical changes to solve the problems of the people and to reduce corruption. Defining the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) as Permanent Protection of Poor People, the Chief Minister said that through this the public is getting all the facilities of various government schemes by sitting at home. “Through PPP, 12.5 lakh new ration cards have been made in the month of December. Two lakh people complained that their ration cards had been wrongly cut. A survey was done in this regard and about 1.25 lakh ration cards have been re-made,” he added.

Taking a dig at the opposition, the Chief Minister said that the opposition leaders used to say that when their government comes to power, they will close the portals and abolish the merit system. “But in reality, the common people are benefiting from these policies of our government. That's why the leaders of the opposition have now started saying that they will let those portals which are running well to continue like this. The public is discerning everything; they know the works of the previous governments,” he added.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the opposition had discontinued the old pension scheme and today they are raising slogans to implement it. “The Central Government has formed a committee regarding the New Pension Scheme. After the decision of the committee, it will be considered further,” he said. Responding to the opposition's statement of repeatedly releasing white paper, the Chief Minister said, “The white paper is never brought on own work. It is presented against other parties, against their methodology. Our budget document is our white paper.”

Opposition's mathematics regarding unemployment and debt is weak

Targeting the opposition on the figures of unemployment and government's debt in the state, the Chief Minister said that the mathematics of the opposition is very weak. He said that any government can borrow up to 25 percent of GSDP and we are within this limit. “At the time of Congress, the state's GSDP was 3 lakh crore, according to which they had taken a loan. But today the all-round development of the state is taking place and due to our efforts, today the GSDP has reached 10 lakh crore. We are taking loans according to this GSDP and our debt is within the limit,” he said.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the opposition shows the figures of a private agency for unemployment, which are not correct. “This organization’s figures for unemployment vary from 24 percent, sometimes 34 percent and at times 37 percent. These figures cannot be trusted,” he added. He said that data of each family is there in the Parivar Pehchan Patra and those who are unemployed have given self-declaration in this data. According to this, there is about 5-6 percent unemployment in the state. To reduce the unemployment rate, continuous employment opportunities are being provided by the state government, he asserted.

The Chief Minister said that the government is constantly making efforts to reduce the dropout rate so that even children in the age group of 15 to 18 years are not deprived of education and do not turn to child labour.

Supreme Court has to decide how SYL will be built and by whom

The Chief Minister said that water conservation is the need of the hour. “We are moving towards managing the available water and ensuring its reuse by recycling it. We are not getting our share of water due to SYL. The Supreme Court has already decided in favor of Haryana. Now also, the Supreme Court has to decide how SYL will be constructed and who will do it,” he added.

Farmers will get full compensation in month of May

The Chief Minister said that the process of Girdawari of the crops damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm is in the final stage. “After completing all the process, the farmers will get full compensation in the month of May. We have created e- Kshatipurti portal on which the farmers have been given the facility to upload their crop loss report,” he added. He further said that transparency is coming in works through e-tendering and they are being done swiftly. Now almost all sarpanches are adopting this method and no sarpanch is opposing it, he said.