Acute power crisis in Haryana: Hooda

Faridabad, May 1 (IANS) Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday said the people of the state have been hit with the acute power crisis caused by short-sightedness of the BJP-JJP government.

He said the government has pushed the state into a crisis due to its ill-conceived policies.

Addressing the 5th phase of the Vipaksh Aapke Samaksh programme here, Hooda said the state was under an acute power crisis.

"The people of entire Haryana, including Faridabad, are deeply troubled by the power crisis and this is why this program has also turned into an anti-electricity crisis rally."

The Leader of Opposition thanked party President Sonia Gandhi for making Chaudhary Udaybhan the president of the state Congress. He said the high command has entrusted the command of the party to a committed, hardworking and grounded leader.

In his all-out attack, Hooda termed the BJP-JJP coalition government as a failure on every front.

"During the Congress tenures, we had established four power plants and a nuclear plant. We had made availability of electricity from 4,000 to 11,000 MW. Today, Haryana requires the power from 8,000-8,500 MW. But the government is not able to provide electricity even after eight years of helm."

"This is because the government has no planning. The government gave 750 MW of electricity from the Jharli plant to Delhi. Far from setting up of new power plants, the already established power plants have stopped production. The government should release a white paper on the problem of electricity so that people know the truth. The government should solve the power crisis, otherwise the Congress will come out on the streets," Hooda warned.

The former Chief Minister reminded that before 2005, the situation in Haryana was such that the students of the state had to go to other states to study. "We decided to make Haryana a hub of education and established the best universities, colleges and higher educational institutions of the country and the world in Haryana."

"While being the Chief Minister, I believed that a country can progress if it does well on the sports arena. Therefore, we made a policy to make Haryana a sports hub, which proved successful. The achievements of the players of Haryana in Olympics and other sports competitions are proof of this," he said.

"The present government has buried the state under a whopping debt of about 3 lakh crore," he added.