Haryana 2015: Dalit issues a blot, panchayat norm got SC nod

Burning of two Dalit children sparking widespread condemnation, fixing of minimum qualification for panchayat poll contestants and Supreme Court endorsing it, Twitter-happy minister Anil Vij's frequent brush with controversy and passage of a stringent cow protection law were some of the highlights of 2015 in Haryana.
A number of other issues also made news -- the state's move to introduce Gita in school curriculum, an alleged paddy scam raked up by the Opposition, more incidents pertaining to Dalits, charge sheet against senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka being dropped, launching of Centre's flagship 'Beti Bachao- Beti Padhao' campaign and yoga guru Ramdev made the state's brand ambassador.

Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh also remained in limelight for his new avatar as actor as he featured in his own flick "MSG: The Messenger" and its sequel.
The Congress and principal Opposition INLD kept up the attack on the government over its alleged failure on issues related to power, farmers, employees, guest teachers, and worsening law and order.
Despite scathing attacks from the Opposition parties, which branded the ruling dispensation as "inexperienced" and "non-performing", the government led by first-time MLA and first-time Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar set the ball rolling for putting in place a transparent and graft-free administration.

The government undertook various initiatives of e- governance aimed at reducing interface between the public and government functionaries to help minimise corruption and rendering citizen-centric services in a time-bound manner.

On the sports front, Olympic bronze-medalist Vijender Singh, the country's most celebrated boxer hailing from Bhiwani, surprised many with his decision to bid adieu to his amateur career by turning professional in June.
The beginning of the year saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' (save the girl child and educate her) campaign from Panipat, while the fag end of the year brought good news for the Khattar government, with Supreme Court upholding the constitutional validity of the law that made minimum educational qualification compulsory for contesting panchayat elections in the state.

However, if there was one person who stole the limelight this year, it was outspoken Health and Sports Minister Vij whose no-holds barred comments on Twitter and otherwise at times even left his own government and Khattar embarrassed.
In November, Haryana's cow protection law, passed by the
Assembly in March, came into force after President Pranab Mukherjee's assent. Cow trafficking, slaughtering and eating beef are banned in the state under the new law, which provides for rigorous imprisonment ranging from three years to 10 years for killing the animal.
Mid October also saw a major row erupting over Khattar's reported comments over beef.

As BJP had made land deals under the previous Congress regime in Haryana a major poll issue last year, alleging that land rules were relaxed to favour a few, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Vadra; Khattar in May set up the Justice S N Dhingra Commission to probe grant of licence to some entities, including Vadra's company in Gurgaon.
In December, the term of the Commission, which was to submit its report to the government within six months from the date of its first sitting, was extended for six months till June 2016.
The Khattar regime also turned the heat on the previous Congress government, coming out with a white paper in March on state's financial health, depicting a grim picture of the economy.

In May, the BJP government ordered a vigilance inquiry to look into the allotment of 11 industrial plots by the previous regime in Industrial Estate, Panchkula in December 2011 to the alleged "undeserving candidates".
However, as the state government was close to celebrating its first year in office towards October end, the incident of two Dalit children being burnt alive rattled the nation while another incident involving death of a teenage Dalit boy in Gohana in Sonipat also left the people shocked.
Prior to this, communal violence hit Ateli village in Faridabad district in May.
Opposition parties leveled charges of paddy scam worth Rs 24,000 crore, alleging that farmers had been cheated by commission agents. Farmers suffered extensive damage to crops due to unseasonal rains in February-March while white fly pest wreaked havoc to their cotton crops in July-August.

However, the government dismissed charges of Opposition that it was "anti-farmer" and compensated the farmers for their crop damage paying over Rs 1,100 crore.