Rohtak, October 27
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said Haryana would soon have an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for which he had already sought informal approval from Union Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh.

The Chief Minister was speaking at the inaugural function of the zonal youth festival at Lal Nath Hindu College here.

He said the state government was striving to provide quality education. The Rajiv Gandhi Education City would be set up soon. It would attract students from foreign countries also. Institutes of architecture, chartered accountancy, engineering, medicine, biotechnology and nanotechnology would be set up in the proposed city which would meet international standards.

Many institutes of international repute had shown interest in setting up their campuses in this city, he said, adding that the only one condition for these institutes was that they would have to reserve 25 per cent seats for students of Haryana. Out of these, five per cent would get full, 10 per cent would get 50 percent and the rest would get 25 percent concession in fee. He said with these concessions deserving students from poor families would be able to get a good education.

Mr Hooda said an institute of fashion designing in collaboration with NIFT would also be set up in Haryana. The state government was also setting up a university for women at Khanpur Kalan which would be the first of its kind in North India.

He said that a National Law University was also proposed at IMT, Manesar, and a regional centre would be opened at Jind. The government would develop Sir Chhotu Ram Engineering College, Murthal, as a technical university. The Chief Minister also reiterated that efforts were on to develop Maharshi Dayanand University at Rohtak as a central university.

Mr Hooda said quality education was necessary and for this he had increased the budget for education by 50 per cent. During the previous regime, there were no teachers in schools and the students were leaving government schools. Now the Congress government had advertised 12000 posts of teachers of which 33 per cent were reserved for women.

He announced a grant of Rs 21 lakh for construction of an auditorium in LN Hindu College.

Later, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of the Department of Engineering and Technology building to be constructed at a cost of Rs 10 crore at the MDU campus. He also laid the foundation stone of a girls’ hostel of this department. The hostel would be named after the astronaut Kalpana Chawla and would cost Rs 4 crore. It would have 130 rooms and would accommodate 240 girls.

He also told that efforts would be made to set up a light commercial vehicle manufacturing unit like that of Maruti in the proposed IMT here. 

New Delhi, October 27
Amidst the growing controversy over the special economic zones (SEZ), the Board of Approvals today approved 24 SEZs, including three SEZs in Haryana. The Centre also notified the master list of operations to be used by the board for authorising operations to be undertaken in the SEZs.

The board gave formal approval to 24 SEZs in Haryana, Maharashtra and principle approval to 20 proposals in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Noida and Karnataka.

The proposals cleared in Haryana were for a biotech SEZ by M/s Global Health Private Limited; an IT SEZ and another for a multi-product SEZ to Suncity; and an IT SEZ by M/s Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited.

Other notable approval in principle include the first SEZ in Dadra Nagar Haveli approved for a textile sector specific by M/s Alok Infrastructure; a free trade warehousing zone in Greater Noida; multi product SEZ in Karnataka to M/s Century Property Management; and M/s Wockhard Infrastructure Development for a pharmaceutical sector in Maharashtra.

The approval comes within days of Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi expressing concern. She had stated that “prime agricultural land should not normally be diverted to non-agricultural uses” and called for satisfactory compensation to be paid when land was taken over.

The Left parties had recently submitted a note to the UPA government seeking a review of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy and initiate necessary corrective steps.

“Several provisions made in the SEZ rules have raised concerns of misuse of the SEZ Act for creating a speculative real estate bubble instead of building industrial infrastructure,” the note said.

“The UPA government should therefore initiate a review of the SEZ Act at the earliest with a view of making appropriate amendments,” it said.

According to Finance Ministry’s estimates, SEZs could lead to a revenue loss of Rs 175,000 crore in direct taxes, customs and excise duties over the next five years, while the Commerce Ministry says the zones will lead to Rs 44,000 crore revenue gain for the government in a year.

RBI’s views that SEZs would lead to massive revenue loss to the exchequer due to various tax sops given to 150 SEZs already cleared and 225 others that are pending.

The IMF too cautioned India last week to take a second look at its SEZ policy, saying tax sops may divert a lot of activity from the rest of the economy into these zones, creating problems of inequitable regional development.

Chandigarh, October 27
The change of guard in the Power Department of Haryana has led to questions about the tenure of the new Principal Secretary of the department.

Mr Ashok Lavasa, who was posted as the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary of the department in an administrative reshuffle here on Wednesday, is learnt to be keen on serving with the Central Government. He has already written to the state government for recommending his name for Central deputation.

Mr Lavasa had served in the Central Government earlier also. He returned to his parent cadre of Haryana in 2003. Interestingly, he clung to New Delhi all the same and managed to secure the position of Resident Commissioner of Haryana Bhavan in the Capital.

In the administrative reshuffle on Wednesday, Mr Lavasa has been also given charge as Chief Coordinator of the Investment Promotion Centre of the Haryana Government in Delhi. This will enable the 1980 batch IAS officer to shuttle between Chandigarh and Delhi to assume his dual charge.

However, given the nature of the job in the power sector, the Principal Secretary trying to get a posting in Delhi may not auger well for the department. The other option for the state government is to accept Mr Lavasa’s request and send his name for Central deputation. Mr Lavasa’s “cooling-off” period with the Haryana Government would come to an end in December when he would be ready for an assignment at the Centre. But this would make his posting effected on Wednesday essentially a stopgap arrangement and bring flak for the government from its adversaries.

The power sector is jokingly called the Waterloo of bureaucrats in official circles of Haryana. Traditionally, the power sector has played the most significant role in determining the popularity of governments in Haryana. 

Chandigarh, October 27
Should the crushing of sugarcane by mills be advanced to increase the area under wheat cultivation in the coming rabi season? Many feel so. Over the years the area under wheat cultivation has been reduced, leading to a shortage of wheat in the country, which compelled the Union Government to import it last year in a bid to protest the nation’s food security and check the rising prices of what is the staple diet of a vast population of the country.

The sugar mills in this part of the country normally start crushing cane in the second half of November. Wheat sowing is undertaken up to the third week of December. if sugarcane crushing is advanced by 15 days, a large area under sugarcane will be released for wheat sowing.

The secretary of the Haryana Congress, Mr Satpal Kaushik, has written to the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, urging him to ask the sugar mills to advance cane crushing to the first week of November.

Mr Kaushik, who is also a progressive cane grower of Yamunanagar district, pointed out that since the rains this year had been below normal in the sugarcane belt of the state, there was an acute shortage of fodder. If the cane crushing was advanced, cane leaves could be used as fodder. He said when all 15 sugar mills (12 in the cooperative sector and three in the private sector) would start crushing, on an average 2,000 acres would be free every day for wheat sowing.

He also urged the Chief Minister to convene an urgent meeting of the state Cane Board to declare the sugarcane price to be paid by the mills to the growers. He said in view of the increased cost of production, there should be at least 10 per cent increase in the cane price over that prevalent last year. Haryana had given Rs 135, Rs 124 and Rs 122 per quintal for the early, middle and late varieties, respectively.

Mr Kaushik reminded Mr Hooda that Saraswati Sugar Mill, Yamunanagar, had withheld part payment of the growers for the 2002-03 season when the Indian National Lok Dal was in power as it had challenged the state government’s authority to declare a price higher than the one announced by the Centre in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where the case was still pending.

Following intervention by Mr Hooda a few months ago, an agreement was reached between the growers and the mill and the latter had agreed to pay the arrears relating to the period of the Chautala regime to the growers. However, Mr Kaushik said the payment had still not been made, leading to uncertainty among the growers. He urged the Chief Minister to take suitable steps to protect the interests of the growers before the start of the new crushing season.

Sirsa, October 27
The district administration has decided to involve self-help groups for preparing mid-day meals for schoolchildren. In the first phase, 50 villages have been identified where members of self-help groups will prepare food in government schools.

The pilot project is being launched in the state from Sirsa district. While the state authorities have accepted the proposal in principle, a formal approval in this regard is awaited. Deputy Commissioner, V. Umashankar, told The Tribune that the idea was to bring the mid-day meal scheme under local control. “The members of the self-help groups would be chosen from the BPL families of the village, for whom the scheme would be a source of income. Besides, schoolteachers will keep watch on the functioning of the group,” he maintained.

The panchayat and self-help group members working on the project will be extra cautious about the quality of ration and cooking as their own children would be studying in the school.

Earlier, addressing a meeting of sarpanches at Panchyat Bhavan here today, Mr Umashankar initiated a training programme for representatives of self-help groups. Permission was sought from village panchayats concerned for the purpose. Panchayat members were exhorted to get meals prepared and distributed among schoolchildren under their supervision.

Deputy Commissioner disclosed that a supervisory committee under the village sarpanch would also be formed. A woman and a Dalit member of the panchayat concerned would also be included in the committee, he said, adding the committee headed by the sarpanch would also purchase ration for meals.

“Initially, the project will be run for six months and if the scheme is a success, it will be extended to other villages of the district,” Mr Umashankar said. LPG cylinders and stoves are being arranged for all government primary schools

Additional Deputy Commissioner, Pankaj Yadav, stated under the “Hariyali” scheme, a kitchen and a storeroom would be constructed in the schools.