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Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

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Hooda denies political pressure in naming Deputy CM

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 15. The Haryana Governor, A.R. Kidwai, has on the advice of the Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, allocated portfolios to the newly-appointed Ministers. While Chander Mohan, son of the former Chief Minister and president of the Haryana unit of the Congress, Bhajan Lal, has been designated Deputy Chief Minister and entrusted the Food and Supplies portfolio, Venod Sharma has been given Excise and Taxation and Forests.

Birender Singh has been allocated Finance and Labour and Employment; Surinder Singh, Agriculture and Revenue; Kartar Devi, Health, Social Welfare, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes; Ajay Singh, Irrigation and Elections; Om Prakash Jindal, Power and Printing and Stationery; Phool Chand Mullana, Education and Languages and Industrial Training and Vocational Education; Lachhman Das Arora, Industries and Urban Development; and Randeep Singh Surjewala, Transport and Parliamentary Affairs.

Mr. Hooda would retain the remaining portfolios, according to an official note issued here today.

`No political pressure'

PTI adds: Mr. Hooda told reporters that the decision to appoint Mr. Chander Mohan as his Deputy was taken by the party high command. He brushed aside reports that there was ``political pressure'' on him in this regard.

Dismissing as ``speculation'' reports that there was ``political pressure'' to make the Kalka MLA his Deputy, Mr. Hooda told reporters that ``it is a party decision and we all respect it''.

Asked what had been the criteria in allocating the portfolios, Mr. Hooda said, ``it will be a performing government and we have distributed work keeping this in mind.''

He, however, evaded a direct reply when asked to comment on Bhajan Lal's reported remarks he enjoyed the support of the majority of the MLAs and could pose a problem for the Hooda goverment.

``That is a closed chapter and the party is fully united. There were talks that my term as Haryana Congress president would last only for more than three months, but I continued to head the State unit for six years,'' he said.

About the possibility of a cabinet expansion, he said, ``when the need is felt it will be done. There are three more Ministers who can be accommodated; then there is the question of Speaker and Deputy Speaker and vote-on-account has to go,'' he said.

Asked if there was any specific reason in keeping the Home portfolio with him, he said ``there is no such reason''.

Corruption to be probed

Stressing that Congress had fought and won the Haryana polls promising ``corruption free and terror free state'', Mr. Hooda talked tough and said ``anybody who had indulged in corruption'' under the previous INLD regime would not be spared, but made it clear his government does not believe in ``witch-hunting''. ``It will be all before you, but Congress does not believe in political vendetta,'' Mr. Hooda replied when asked whether his government would act on the chargesheet prepared by the party last year against the previous Om Prakash Chautala regime.

``When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi toured Haryana during the election campaigning, they made it clear that our party will provide a corruption-free regime. We are committed not to harass anybody as we do not believe in witch-hunting,'' he said. He alleged that the "non-performing" INLD Government had left the State's finances in a bad shape.--PTI

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