Bhupinder Singh Hooda politicising issue of drought relief: Sanjeev Balyan

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan on Sunday lashed out at Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for "deliberately" politicising the issue of drought relief and rice export while accusing him of misleading farmers on these issues. "The Haryana government is deliberately politicising the issues of drought relief and export of rice. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is misleading farmers of the state by creating an impression that the Union government is delaying the relief," Balyan said here while addressing media today.
He accused the Congress-led state government of sending incomplete report pertaining to drought relief.

"The state had to send the report by September 22 but it was received on October 1 and that too was incomplete in all respects. It has not been mentioned which crop has been damaged and up to what extent," he claimed. "As soon as we receive the complete report and facts, we shall announce the relief within 24 hours," he said. Haryana government had declared the state "drought-affected" in the wake of deficit rainfall and had sought special package of Rs 4,829.75 crore from the Centre.

The Union Minister further accused Hooda of "wrongly" propagating that the Centre had banned rice export. "Hooda is propagating that the Modi government has stopped export of rice. Actually so far the deals weighing rice to the tune of 15.21 lakh tonnes have been finalised and 12.20 lakh tonnes have already been exported," he said. Balyan blamed Haryana government for not taking any action against purchase agents for not paying remunerative prices to farmers. He exuded confidence that the BJP would get majority in Haryana assembly polls and would form the government.