Abhimanyu says Hooda should apologize to Haryana farmers

Chandigarh: Reacting to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s participation in the farmers’ protest on Friday, Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu on Saturday said Hooda should apologize to the state farmers for his “wrongdoings.”

“The people of Haryana suffered for 10 years under Hooda. No one has forgotten how, during this period, land was forcibly taken away from thousands of farmers and distributed amongst builders, industrialists and members of the Gandhi family. As punishment for his misdeeds, the 2.5-crore population of Haryana voted him out of power. He is now merely indulging in politics in the name of farmers to build up his political relevance,” the minister alleged.

Abhimanyu said, “Hooda, who is now protesting for the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, should tell the people of the state what he had done regarding that matter. He has forgotten how, apart from forced acquisition of the land, farmers were offered cheques for Rs 2 or Rs 3 as compensation for losses due to crop damage during his regime.”

He said during its two-and-a-half year tenure, the BJP government in Haryana had not acquired any land belonging to farmers without their consent and compensation awarded for crop damage was the highest-ever in the state.

“While the previous government disbursed compensation amounting to an average of Rs 90 crore a year to the farmers, we have disbursed compensation to the tune of an average of Rs 1,100 crore a year,” he said.