Connections on track,finally

Three major railway projects,a demand first raised by Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Parliament in 1991

Three major railway projects,a demand first raised by Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Parliament in 1991,are finally on their way to Haryana. The new Delhi-Alwar,Hisar-Sirsa and Yamunanagar-Chandigarh lines will run 104 km,93 km and 91 km respectively. At a function in Hisar,where Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge was present,Chief Minister Hooda announced the state government would share 50 per cent of the project cost of Rs 2,515 crore. The function was for laying the foundation stone for a Hansi-Meham-Rohtak line,besides four-laning of a section of NH 10. Kharge,for his part,announced that the Delhi-Ludhiana Shatabdi Express would run all week and halt at Jind.

Series of projects

Over the past few weeks,Chief Minister Hooda has made announcement after announcement across the state. The projects he has declared or inaugurated include a regional centre of the Kurukshetra University in Jind,a National Institute of Design in Kurukshetra,a thermal power plant in Yamunanagar,a private university in Kaithal,a National Institute of Fashion Technology in Panchkula,Indias first defence university in Gurgaon,a rail coach factory in Sonepat,and a centre of excellence for fruits in Sirsa. These are apart from the three new railway lines promised. Sources in the state government say it has allocated over Rs 100 crore for publicising its achievements.

Grumbling partymen

Balbir Pal Shah,the Congress MLA from Panipat,has resigned ahead of the elections,accusing Chief Minister Hooda of regional bias. He has alleged the chief minister was concerned only for Rohtak and Jhajjar but has of late been laying foundation stones across the state. Hooda continues to come under attack from rivals in the party. The most vocal among them of late has been Birender Singh,who has been claiming for over a month that Congress president Sonia Gandhi will attend his rally in Haryana on August 20,and that he will not invite Hooda. Other detractors of Hooda include Kumari Selja and Rao Inderjit. Hooda,meanwhile,continues to insist that all is well in the state Congress.

Affordable housing

The government has worked out an Affordable Housing Policy 2013. The scheme,announced by Hooda,aims at providing 1.25 lakh dwelling units with a carpet area of about 500 sq ft each built-up area 600 sq ft in urban centres. These will be allotted at Rs 4,000 per sq ft carpet area in Gurgaon,Fairdabad,Panchkula and Pinjore-Kalka; Rs 3,600 per sq ft in other high- and medium-potential towns and Rs 3,000 per sq ft in the remaining towns. The government has set a deadline of four years for the handover of the houses to the beneficiaries. Should a developer fail to meet the deadline,his bank guarantee will be forfeited and his licence terminated.