Hisar: Congress activists led by Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda today staged a dharna in Hansi town of the district to protest against the delay in starting of work on the Hansi-Meham-Rohtak railway project. It is a joint project of the Central and state governments to be funded on the 50:50 per cent basis.

Hisar: Congress activists led by Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda today staged a dharna in Hansi town of the district to protest against the delay in starting of work on the Hansi-Meham-Rohtak railway project. It is a joint project of the Central and state governments to be funded on the 50:50 per cent basis.

Deepender said the previous UPA government at the Centre had set the project in motion and the process of acquisition of the required land was also initiated. The Central government also allocated a grant for it. The then Railway Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, accompanied by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, laid the foundation stone of the project on July 28, 2013.

“This project is a classic example of a discriminatory attitude of the NDA government. The project has apparently been put in cold storage, as the work on it is yet to begin even though the NDA government has completed three years in office,” Deepender alleged.

The Rohtak MP said they would stage another dharna at Meham town in Rohtak on August 21 if the work on the railway line is not started. “This railway line project is part of planned growth activities in the Hisar-Rohtak-Sirsa corridor. The road network was strengthened in the town and direct rail connectivity between Hansi and Meham to curtail the distance between Hisar and Rohtak towns would have spurred growth activities. But the BJP government is bent upon derailing the development agenda set by the previous government,” he alleged.

Deepender said BJP national president Amit Shah’s Rohtak visit to save the sinking ship of the BJP in Haryana would prove futile. “Like the Hansi-Meham rail project, other works worth around Rs one lakh crore, which the previous government had sanctioned, were languishing due to the bias of the present government,” he added.