Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is one of the few Congressmen to be re-elected as chief minister of Haryana for a second successive term. He speaks to FE?s Nistula Hebbar on his second innings, his plans for the state and the current controversy over khap panchayats.

Haryana has got huge amount of investment by industry and has a lot more in the pipeline. In such a scenario, what steps are being taken to ensure adequate power supply?

So far, the demand for power is around 7,000 mw, which is expected to go up to 9000 mw by 2011. The total available power at present is 4,000 mw. In the next four and a half years, we have targeted the generation of at least 5,000 mw. This will be done through three mega power projects, which are in the pipeline ? the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power project in Hissar for 1,200 mw, Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power project at Jhajjar for 1,500 mw and the Mahatma Gandhi Thermal Power project again in Jhajjar for 1,320 mw. Also, there is a plan to build a 2,800 mw nuclear power plant at Fatehabad along Nuclear Power Corporation of India. This way we are making sure that industry and the people have no complaints on power supply. In fact, this had been my priority in my first term as the chief minister. Thankfully, I have been elected again to complete these projects.

As an investment destination, Gurgaon appears to be saturated and hit by civic mess. What is your view on it?

Well, there is a shortage of infrastructure in Gurgaon, and we are mindful of that. We have formulated a new master plan for the area, budgeted at Rs 700 crore, which will look into boosting infrastructure in the city. The focus would be especially on power, water and sewage. The metro link has already reached Gurgaon and we are also looking at an intra-Gurgaon metro system to be built by DLF to serve the transport needs. To ease some pressure from Gurgaon, we are in talks over extending the metro link to Faridabad and Badalpur and Kondli. In this regard, we are also going to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) on the lines of the DMRC called the Haryana Metro Rail Corporation to take the metro to Manesar.

We are also concentrating a lot on the Kondli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) highway to ease investment pressure on Gurgaon. We are building a global corridor on both sides of the highway, including a medical city and a film city. Haryana has emerged number one in terms of attracting investment.

Every second car in India has been manufactured in Haryana.

Speaking of cars, did you ever think perhaps Nano could have been made in Haryana?

If Mr Tata had spoken to me, something could have been worked out. As I understand it, they also required port connectivity for their plant, which ruled us out.

Recently, Haryana has been in the news for khap panchayats and honour killings. What is your stand on that?

When it comes to honour killings, I would like to point out that these are not isolated in Haryana. It exists in other states as well. As for khap panchayats, there is a confusion over what these panchayats are exactly doing. Most don?t say anything other than what is already there in the Hindu Marriage Act. Killing cannot be condoned of course. However, we can?t control what the media is writing about the issue.

There were also these incidents in Mirchpur where atrocities against Dalits occurred. What is your take on it?

The incidents in Mirchpur were a clash between two communities. The government has been very responsive when it comes to the needs of the Dalit community. For example, our scheme for housing for Dalits, where 100 sq yards of land is allotted to each Dalit family, is a runaway success with over 4 lakh square yards of land already allotted. Its called the Mahatma Gandhi Grameen Basti Yojana. For education too, we give scholarships for Dalit boys and girls.

Haryana has a higher than average literacy rate in the country. How are you planning to leverage that?

In five to seven years, Haryana will become an education hub, especially women education. We already have the first all girls university at Khanpur, which will soon have a medical college as well. We are building a defence university, which will be concentrating on strategic affairs, in Gurgaon along with the Rajiv Gandhi Educational City in Moorthal. Brand names in education like ISB Hyderabad have agreed to set up campuses for us.