Rs 20,000 crore loss pegged for Haryana so far due to ongoing agitation

New Delhi, Feb 22 (KNN) The ongoing violent agitation in Haryana has already dealt an estimated blow of Rs 18,000-Rs 20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property and halting trade, industry, small business and transport, according to a report.

Since Haryana shares  borders with   Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and is the transit route to a number of national highways and trunk railway lines , the collateral damage to the economic activities to other states in terms of loss to production, transport and movement of people would add a few thousands crores more to the overall loss to the national economy, said industry body Assocham.

While the state government would assess the loss of damage to public property like burning of buses, private vehicles, railways stations, police stations, malls and hotels, the trade , industry and other businesses have come to almost complete halt in most of the districts, barring parts of Gurgaon, Rewari and other few areas on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway number  8. 

The trade and industry loss is maximum in the worst affected areas of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Jind, Gohana, Sonipat, Kaithal, Karnal  and Panipat. 

“The state administration has to be on top of the situation to control the anti-social elements, causing immense damage to the reputation of the state,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said in an appeal to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. 

Several industries had come up in the past few years, including that of Suzuki on the Delhi-Rohtak highway.
“A huge loss of confidence among investors to set up industries in this area would happen, making it imperative for the state administration not to lose further time in reining in the goonda and anti-social elements who are taking advantage of the Jat reservation agitation”.

With a population of about three crore people, Haryana has so far been considered a progressive state with the Gross Domestic Product of about Rs 4,50,000 crore coming from industry, trade, agriculture , dairy farming and transport. It boasts of global business hubs like Gurgaon which houses top multi-national companies with  back-office operations in IT and IT services and automobile giants like Maruti Suzuki.  Incidentally, Maruti Suzuki has stopped production at its Gurgaon and Maneswar plants.

The collateral damage has been done to businesses and industries in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh besides a huge harassment to the common man, caught in the transit.

“Hundreds of trucks with thousands of tonnes of goods and hundreds of trains , both goods and passengers have been affected. The current violent agitation would reflect in the balance sheets of not only the corporates, traders but also the state exchequers”.  A huge damage would be done textile exporters with facilities in Panipat  which had made a name for itself for handlooms, carpets all over the world. (KNN Bureau)