PM Narendra Modi to launch Haryana's golden jubilee celebrations on Tuesday

Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to launch Haryana`s year-long golden jubilee celebrations from Gurugram on Tuesday, said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while clarifying that his government was not spending Rs 1,700 crore on the celebrations.

Modi will kick-off Haryana`s `Swarna Jayanti` celebrations on Tuesday from Gurugram`s Tau Devi Lal stadium. The Haryana government is expecting over 100,000 people to attend the inaugural ceremony.

"We are not spending Rs 1,700 crore on golden jubilee celebrations, I want to clarify. It was wrongly projected that Rs 1,700 crore was being spent on celebrations. This is for various schemes and programmes to be launched for people`s welfare during the entire year," Khattar told media here on Monday.

"It (expenditure) is not this way. The amount being spent of the golden jubilee celebrations is much less and different departments will bear that," he claimed.

Haryana, which was created on November 1, 1966, completes 50 years on Tuesday.

"The Prime Minister will make important announcements on Tuesday at the event," said Khattar, who also launched the "Saksham Haryana` scheme on Monday in which post-graduate, unemployed youth would be given Rs 9,000 honorarium for 100 hours of work per month.

"The scheme starts from November 1. Government departments and private sector both will be involved in this. Nearly 1,100 post-graduates are registered in employment exchanges in Haryana," he said.

Khattar said that, as per estimates, there were over 30,000 unemployed post-graduate youth in Haryana but most of them were not registered with employment exchanges.

"If all of them register, the financial burden on the state would be Rs 324 crore for this scheme," he said.

Among other announcements made by Khattar on Monday were an increase in salary of Home Guards, from Rs 300 per day to Rs 572 per day, making it equivalent to police constables. Over 14,000 home guards will benefit from it.

Khattar also said that given the large number of ex-servicemen in the state, a new full-fledged department for ex-servicemen would be set up.

He said that `Haryana Swarna Jayanti Medal` would be given to all police personnel in the state which they will wear on their uniform.

He said that the Gurugram Development Authority (GDA) will start functioning from November 1, and streamline Gurugram`s development.