CHANDIGARH, Jan 29: Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal today ticked off the Home Department during question hour in the state assembly for its lack of preparedness and inability to provide full facts regarding theft of vehicles and their recoveries.The Chief Minister rebuffed the Home Department after heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the opposition on the issue of law and order. He told the department not to take things in a "casual manner". He assured the House that during his answer to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address, he would come out with full details.Bansi Lal had to intervene when the Home Minister Mani Ram Godara failed to give a satisfactory response to a question raised by Ajay Singh (Cong) and Sampat Singh (Indian National Lok Dal) on cases of murders, rapes, thefts and dacoities in the state. The Home Minister said that as many as 657 murders took place in the state during the first eight months of the current financial year. There were as many as 409 cases of kidnapping and abduction while there were 265 cases of rape. He put the total number of absconders at 7371 as on December 31, 1998.The long-pending completion of the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal in Punjab figured in the Vidhan Sabha during question hour. Opposition Congress members accused the present HVP-BJP government of doing nothing to get the link canal completed and bring Haryana's share of the river water from Punjab. Irrigation Minister Harsh Kumar retaliated by blaming the previous Congress and Devi Lal governments for doing nothing in this regard. It was the Bansi Lal government which had taken up the river waters issue to the Supreme Court, he pointed out.
