Infra push, farmer welfare our prime focus

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

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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 timebound manner. Easy-going and soft-spoken, Saini will complete a year as chief minister on March 12. In an interview with Executive Editor Ramesh Vinayak and Senior Associate Editor Hitender Rao on Wednesday, he spoke about the highlights of his tenure, his governance road map, and his priority areas. Edited excerpts:

What are the highlights of your reign so far?

In the first 100 days of my second term, I met around 1.50 lakh people and addressed about 75,000 grievances. We have also tried to accomplish the promises made in our election manifesto, including providing subsidized cooking gas at ₹500 per cylinder to 15 lakh women whose annual income is less than ₹1.80 lakh. Just after the 2024 assembly polls, we gave appointment to about 25,000 individuals whose recruitment had got stalled due to complaints made by the Congress during the assembly elections. We introduced free dialysis facility for chronic kidney patients. About 20,000 persons will benefit from this healthcare initiative. We are the first state to implement sub-classification of scheduled castes for the purpose of reservation in government jobs into two categories to provide benefit to deprived scheduled castes.

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.