Exploring Hooda’s Tenure: Congress Allegedly Pushed Regionalism And Neglected Haryana’s Growth

The people of Haryana have also endured a time when the government only cared about certain areas of the state, while other regions were completely neglected. Most areas and their residents were left entirely forgotten.

At the level of the Chief Minister, there was blatant favoritism. Just as one community dominated the Congress rule in Haryana at that time, similarly, the state's treasury was opened only for a particular region.

Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had systematically redirected the state's resources towards just one area, where he could serve his political interests. The rest of the regions were left to fend for themselves because the government simply didn't care about them. It didn't matter to the government that the majority of the state's population was left wanting; they were only interested in their favored region.

The government, which collected money from the public, couldn't spend it for their welfare. The most glaring example of this undemocratic and discriminatory behavior by a democratically elected government is the mismanagement of over Rs 1,000 crore out of the ₹5,000 crore collected under External Development Charges (EDC) in Gurgaon.

This money was collected by the Hooda government from the residents of Gurgaon, and they admitted in court that they couldn't spend such a large amount on developmental and welfare activities.

Rohtak was prioritized the most in the Congress government's model village scheme. The government was so blindly involved in regionalism that when it came to naming 65 villages as model villages, districts like Sirsa, Mahendragarh, and Panchkula were ignored, leaving everyone surprised. What was even more shocking was that 36% of these model villages were from just two districts, with Rohtak, Hooda's home district, being the biggest beneficiary.

There was blatant discrimination against the regions of political rivals. The Congress government didn't seem to care that such open misuse of power could raise eyebrows. But since it was their government, they did as they pleased. The fact that Sirsa is connected to the Chautala family further deepens the suspicion that the entire decision was politically motivated and biased. The development of the people from this region was not at all a priority for the government.

Quick in collecting from the public, discriminatory in spending. From 2004-05 to 2013-14, the resources raised by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) were also distributed with favoritism, with deliberate efforts made to ignore districts that did not fit into the Congress ecosystem. As a result, development in districts like Rewari, Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Sirsa, and Yamunanagar was barely visible.

Hoping for anything from their own government became meaningless for the common people. During the Congress era, any development announcements were primarily limited to a particular region, and the entire state was left neglected to fend for itself.

Due to this tendency of the Congress, not only did a particular community and region get priority in Haryana, but the majority of the state and its population were systematically left to live a life of disappointment. People had lost hope in expecting anything from their own government.

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