Chandigarh, May 16 (IANS): Senior Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda on Tuesday said more youth of the state are falling in the trap of drugs and crime due to faulty policy and failure of the BJP-JJP government in the state.
Hooda, who toured villages in Rohtak district as part of Hath Se Hath Jodo campaign, told the media that he expressed concern over drug addiction, crime and unemployment spreading far wide in the state.
Responding to a question on use of police force against protesting women in one of the Chief Minister's public programmes, he termed it unfortunate. "This is not a public dialogue but a monologue with self as the public 'is not being listened to'."
"Whereas in a democracy, the voice of the public is heard with priority. It's the responsibility of every public servant to listen to them and solve their problems, but the present government is ignoring the problems like drug addiction," he said.
The Leader of the Opposition said it is the responsibility of the government to give the right direction to the youth. "During the Congress stint, realising this responsibility, we created employment opportunities in the state."
"Along with this, sports policy and stadiums were made in every village to attract the youth towards sports. But the present government left the stadium in the village unclaimed. This is because the government wants to make the youth of the state not sportsmen, but drug addicts. Today, the sportspersons who have brought laurels to the country are protesting at Jantar Mantar."
He said Haryana ranked first in unemployment. "There are 182,000 government posts lying vacant in the state. Due to increasing crime, new investment is also not coming to the state. In the few recruitment that happen, instead of Haryana, youth from other states are being given preference."
About the condition of farmers, Hooda said they are neither getting compensation for crop damage due to unseasonal rains nor the minimum support price (MSP). "The wait for compensation for the damage caused by the rains in the past is not over. Even after harvesting, the government is talking about girdwari," he added.