Hooda takes on detractors

A day after his detractors within the ruling Congress blamed his government for neglecting the Scheduled Castes, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Saturday asked them to visit villages to see the development.

Taking a strong exception to assertions made by his "detractors within the party or outside", Hooda said that "those sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi could not see how many plots have been allotted to the beneficiaries belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes-A and those living below the poverty line and how many schemes have been implemented for their welfare".

Without naming any of his detractors, Hooda suggested to them to "personally visit the villages to see for themselves the development taken place in the state".

He said that his government had spent over Rs.9,000 crore on development of rural areas.

Hooda's remarks came following Friday's rally by Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja and Congress general secretary Birender Singh here. Both the leaders attacked the Hooda government for not controlling teh rising cases of atrocities against the Dalits and said that the Dalit community had not got certain benefits.

Selja and Birender Singh are known detractors of Hooda in state politics. Selja is the Congress MP from Ambala while Birender Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP.

Hooda's rebuttal to his government's criticism came at a function to launch the Priyadarshini Awas Yojna here Saturday. The scheme will provide affordable housing to the people in rural areas.

Hooda claimed that Haryana has become the first state in the country to implement such a scheme.