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Call for a new deal for the unemployed youth

Rajesh Ahuja

Hooda Govt. told to honour its promise of a youth policy

Rajesh Ahuja

FATEHABAD (HARYANA): Youth leaders from Haryana on Saturday demanded that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government honour its promise of unveiling a Youth Policy for the State.

Participating in an impressive rally organised by the Haryana Berozgar Yuva Sanghatan to celebrate the 60th birthday of Congress president Sonia Gandhi here, they said the Chief Minister had assured that his regime would bring out a youth policy to solve the problems faced by nearly 13 lakh registered unemployed youth in the State but nothing had been done so far. The rally, regarded as the brainchild of Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh, who was the chief guest, was attended by Congress Working Committee member Parvesh Hashmi, Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Ghasi Ram Nain, Congress MLA Bharat Singh Beniwal, former Minister Khurshid Ahmed, and other Congress leaders.

Speakers criticised the local administration and the police for stopping the vehicles outside the city limits and making the people traverse nearly 4 km to the venue. They said Mr. Birender Singh was the Haryana Finance Minister and they were celebrating the birthday of the UPA Chairperson. It was inexplicable why was the State Government was bent upon ``harassing'' the people going to attend the rally. Traffic jams could be witnessed in this district headquarters at several places.

Mr. Birender Singh called upon the farmers to get organised and remain united to collectively tackle the problems facing them. Talking about rural indebtedness, he said a way out to save the farmers from the clutches of moneylenders and financial institutions that charged heavy interest was to create a Reserve Fund to meet their financial needs.

While appreciating the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme launched by the UPA Government and eulogising Ms. Sonia Gandhi for her pro-poor policies, he hoped that the period of employment would be increased from 100 to 365 days and the scheme would be extended to all districts in Haryana. At present Mahendergarh and Sirsa districts are covered under the Scheme.

In a significant remark, Mr. Birender Singh said that Special Economic Zones should not come up on fertile lands and the Government must give a minimum compensation of Rs.18 lakh to 20 lakh per acre to the farmers whose land was acquired. And in case this land fell in the National Capital Region then the amount should be Rs. 80 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore per acre.

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