Approval of new colleges: BJP MLAs target own government, say ‘our turf ignored’

Holding similar grudge, BJP’s Om Prakash said that while a college had been announced for his constituency, work was yet to begin.

3 min readChandigarhMar 4, 2017 05:43 AM IST

THE BJP government in Haryana came under fire from its own MLAs on the issue of setting up colleges in the latter’s constituencies. Some party MLAs alleged that their areas were being discriminated against and no new colleges had been approved. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had on February 21 laid the foundation stone of 21 colleges in the state. Some BJP MLAs, including those who met the CM a day earlier to air their grievances, rued that their constituencies “had been given a miss”. A discussion arose on the issue during Question Hour. Indian National Lok Dal MLA Zakir Hussain had raised a question on the government’s proposal to set up a university at Nuh. Hussain said the CM had announced setting up of a university in the name of Lt Kiran Shekhawat, who had died during a training sortie.

Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said there was a proposal to set up two colleges for girls in the area and a varsity was under consideration but there was a problem of availability of land.

BJP MLA Randhi Singh Kapriwas said it was good that the government had laid the foundation stone of 21 new colleges, but none of them was in Rewari. He asked why Rewari was left out and added that the students from his constituency were forced to go to adjoining states for admission.

Holding similar grudge, BJP’s Om Prakash said that while a college had been announced for his constituency, work was yet to begin.

“In Ballabgarh, in the year 2015, a college was announced by the chief minister. There has been no progress since. There is no government college there and students are forced to take admission in private colleges,” said BJP’s Mool Chand Sharma, adding that there were multiple colleges in Rohtak, Jhajjar and Mahendragarh among others. “Tell us whether work will start or not,” asked Sharma.

Trying to pacify the MLAs, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the government will inaugurate or lay foundation stones of additional colleges in April and one of them would be in Rewari.

During the discussion on the Governor’s address, BJP member Prem Lata contended that the officers do not approve of any proposal when it is sent for the first time. “It takes months to get anything approved. The officers need to give up their negative attitude,” she said.

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Those MLAs, who have complained of being sidelined, will be meeting BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi after March 11 when results of the Assembly elections in five states will be announced. A total of 16 MLAs had on Thursday held a meeting amongst themselves before meeting the CM to air their grievances.

The MLAs complained that they were not being given due respect and were discriminated against. They further complained that the officers did not listen to them when they wanted to get some work done. Khattar had assured them that once the budget session ends, he would call a meeting of the officers.

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