We Have Tried To Accomplish Promises Of Our Manifesto

At his official residence in Chandigarh, Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini keeps his doors open for throngs of people from the state, emphasising that he is a leader with the common touch.

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CHANDIGARH:

Saini, 54, who was the BJP high command's unexpected pick as successor to his mentor Manohar Lal Khattar last year, led the party's dramatic third successive victory in the assembly polls. He has now set himself the task of implementing the party's poll promises in a time-bound manner. Easy-going and soft spoken, Saini will complete a year as chief minister on March 12. In an interview with Ramesh Vinayak, he spoke about the highlights of his tenure, his governance road map, and his priority areas. Edited excerpts:

What are the highlights of your government so far?

In the first 100 days of my second term, I met around 1.5 lakh people and addressed about 75,000 grievances. We have also tried to accomplish the promises made in our election manifesto including, providing subsidised cooking gas at ₹500 per cylinder to 15 lakh women whose annual income is less than ₹1.8 lakh. Just after the 2024 assembly polls, we gave appointments to about 25,000 individuals whose recruitment was stalled due to complaints made by the Congress during the assembly elections. We introduced free dialysis facility for chronic kidney patients. About 20,000 people will benefit from this health care initiative. We are the first state to implement subclassification of Scheduled Castes for the purpose of reservation in government jobs into two categories to provide benefit to deprived communities.

We have tried to eliminate the disputes over land possession and compensation between landowners and tenants by implementing a new law—the Haryana Lease of Agricultural Land Act, 2024. Tenants who have been occupying Shamilat land (village common land) for over 20 years have been granted ownership rights to that land.