Hooda demands probe into Swarn Jayanti celebration funding

Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda today demanded a probe into funds spent by the Haryana government on the year-long Swarn Jayanti celebrations to mark 50 years of the state formation.
He demanded that the probe be done either by a sitting high court judge or the CBI.
"We demand a probe either by a sitting high court judge or CBI into how funds for the Swarn Jayanti celebrations were utilised. We believe that the funds have not been spent in a fair manner," Hooda told reporters here.
The Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government had organised several functions as part of the Swarn Jayanti celebrations between November 1, 2016 and October 31, 2017.

Describing the three-year tenure of the Khattar dispensation as "teen saal Haryana behaal", Hooda alleged that the government had spent Rs 1,600 crore of public money to propagate its "lies" during the Swarn Jayanti celebrations.
The former chief minister also slammed the state government for making "false" poll promises and said they only did "event management" in the past three years.

The Congress leader said contrary to Khattar's promise to provide 10 lakh jobs, less than 10,000 jobs had been given as of now.
"They should come out with a white paper as to how many jobs have been given by them," he said.

Hooda also blamed the BJP government for fiscal mismanagement.
"As against a debt of Rs 70,931 crore in 2014-15, the debt of the state has risen to Rs 1,41,854 crore in 2017-18," he claimed.
On being asked about alleged irregularities in acquisition of 1,400 acres of land in Gurugram by the previous Congress regime in 2009, Hooda maintained that "no irregularities were committed".
"Our government never gave any land to any builder... everything was done as per the policy, no irregularities were committed," he clarified.
The two-time chief minister also accused the present dispensation for "failing" to solve the issue of Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, Jat reservation, and violence by supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda and self-styled godman Rampal.

"The wrong policies of the Khattar government has completely destroyed the state and has also failed to have the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal constructed.
"The only credit which can be given to this regime is of targeting political opponents, slap false cases against them, change names of schemes which existed under Congress regime, as well as change names of cities and towns," Hooda added.