Karnal, May 7
To achieve the target of making Karnal a polythene-free township, over-zealous local market committee officials have found a novel idea to accomplish the task initiated by the deputy commissioner.

A team of officials led by the secretary of the local market committee today raided several shops and confiscated a cache of plastic bags this morning. More than 70 kg of bags were burnt at the local vegetable market, causing resentment among the local residents and shopkeepers.

Despite a strong opposition by the shopkeepers, the adamant officials continued the illegal exercise of burning the plastic waste in open for more than three hours.

Secretary Satpal Sandhu admitted that the plastic bags were burnt. Justifying the “objectionable'' exercise, he said there was nothing wrong as the burning might have affected a smaller area of the township.

It is worth mentioning that the deputy commissioner had initiated a drive against the use of plastic bags in the town.

Condemning the today's incident, the shopkeepers demanded a strict action against the committee officials for causing immense pollution in the area.

Sushil Kumar, a shopkeeper said the official forcibly took about 50 kgs of polythene bags from his shop and burnt it in front his shop. Later, the team confiscated more bags and burnt them at the spot.

Dr Gurbachan Singh, director of the soil salinity research institute , said the burning of plastic caused air and soil pollutions. ``Neither the non-degradable plastic waste can be recommended to burn, nor be dumped in the soil'', said the senior soil scientist.

Hisar, May 7
The Jindal family and the Indian National Lok Dal are embroiled in a war of words over the purchase of land by a society floated by the family for running a school here in memory of founder of the Jindal industrial conglomerate and former Haryana power minister Om Prakash Jindal.

The land was auctioned on April 30 and all four organisations, which bid for the prime land, belonged to the Jindal family. It was auctioned for a paltry Rs 4.5 crore. The piece of land is situated in a prime commercial area and measures about 20 acres.

While INLD men have been describing the deal as “the biggest land scam in Haryana”, Jindal supporters are defending it on the ground that it was purchased in open auction for establishing a school in memory of man who put Hisar on the 
international map.

Amidst all this, the bureaucracy has also added another dimension to the deal. SDM Ashima Garg, who chaired the auction while forwarding the auction proceedings to the chief administrator of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB), noted that the bids could have gone further up, had there been more competitive bidding. It was pointed out that all four bidders belonged to the Jindal group.

She also noted that none of the bidders were professional and that the Rs 4.5 crore bid at which the land was sold was low. The report is now pending with the marketing board administration.

The land in question was given by the government in 2004 to the marketing board for setting up fodder, fish and vegetable markets. The then Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala laid the foundation stones of these projects subsequently.

However, a few months ago the board declared 20 of the 47 acres as surplus and proposed that the land should be sold for setting up a school by open auction.

Sampat Singh says if the land was surplus, it should have been surrendered to the government which had transferred it to the HSAMB on a reserve price. He also asserts that the board’s job is marketing of agricultural produce not deciding where to establish schools.

The Jindal supporters, however, say the INLD was opposing the deal to discredit the Congress and the Jindal family, whose “political and social standing has been going up steadily over the past few years”.

Sources in the government, however, say while the political accusations would not matter, it will be extremely difficult to ignore the remarks made by the SDM on the file.

No other bureaucrat would like to ignore the remarks, overrule the objections and approve the deal under his signatures.

Jhajjar, May 7
Two persons were killed and nine injured when a Tata Sumo rolled into a nullah in the town last night.

According to information, the deceased were identified as Ajit and his uncle Janak of Alwar district in Rajasthan. They had come to attend a marriage in Lalpur village of Rewari district. The deceased, along with nine, had gone to a village in Bhiwani as members of a marriage party and were returning to Lalpur at night when the driver lost the control over the vehicle and it skidded into a nullah.

The injured, Dashrath, Akash, Ghanshyam, Vinod, Bijender, Paramjeet, Durjan Singh and Inderjeet, were admitted to the civil hospital. The driver, Mahesh, fled after the accident. The police has registered a case against him.

Rohtak, May 7
Here's some good news for Haryana students desirous of studying abroad. The state government has invited applications from students who wish to get education or training in Cyprus (Europe). For this, the candidate should have passed the senior secondary school (XII) exams and should be at least 17 years old. The aspiring students may apply at their nearest Employment Office latest by May 25.

Regional employment officer H.S.Kataria disclosed here today that the applications, along with the required documents, would be sent to the Regional Office of Kes College, Cyprus. The students would initially get a provisional offer letter from the office, which is located in New Delhi, he added.

Kes College is recognised by the government. The students could pursue courses in food preparation and culinary art, hotel management, tour, travel and tourism management, pharmaceutical sciences, business studies and computing. The duration of these study programmes was one to three years.

According to the rules of the European Union, the students will be allowed to work for four hours daily (20 hours a week) to earn money to meet their expenses. In addition to this, after completing 11-month study programmes in food preparation and culinary art, hotel management and tour, travel and tourism management, the students undergo four-month on-job training, during which they get handsome remuneration.

Madhukar Sharma, admission coordinator at the Regional Office of Kes College, said after getting the provisional offer letter, the students were required to deposit an amount of 85 euro (Rs 4,950) at the Delhi office. A receipt of the amount is given by the college.

Sharma said the interested students could get more information in this regard from the websites www.haryanajob.in and www.kes.ac.cy.

Karnal, May 7
Union minister of state for agriculture Akhilesh Prasad Singh today hinted at wheat import this month.

During his brief halt at the new grain market, the minister said the import was required to meet the wheat demand for mid-day meal and PDS schemes in the country.

At this stage, there was a proposal to import 10 lakh tonnes of wheat. If the required wheat was not procured by May 21, then the import quantity would be raised to 50 lakh, the minister said. He said due to the unseasonal rain early this year, crops were badly damaged in several parts of the region.

He has also appealed to farmers in Haryana not to sow “saathi'' paddy, an early variety crop.

The minister said since the variety needed enormous amount of water, it had an adverse effect on the underground water table. 

Chandigarh, May 7
Plots of land will be offered to parties by March, 2008 at the “Education City” being developed by the Haryana government in Kudli in Sonepat district. This was disclosed by Shakuntala Jakhu, principal secretary, town and country planning department, at a review meeting taken by the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here.

The “education city” will have infrastructure and support services to attract top class educational institutes. It will be located at a distance of 22 km from the inter-state bus terminus, Delhi, and 45 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport , Delhi, Jakhu said.

Hooda suggested that the education department should also be involved in the development of the “education city”. He also welcomed the decision of the town and country planning department to develop villages falling within the area of the “education city”.

On the Asawarpur village development plan, the CM was informed that it would have all necessary social and physical amenities for allround development. There would be provision for internal roads, water supply system, sewerage, storm water drainage, solid waste management and children's' park, school and restaurant. The idea of the project is to have a cultural convergence centre with ethnic ambience at the outskirts of the village.

It was also revealed at the meeting that the new townships of Sampla and Jahagirpur-Badli would be finalised by August, 2007. The new township in Samalkha-Ganaur in NCR area would have a total area of 10,000 acres. It has been planned for a projected population of four lakh by 2021. Jahagirpur-Badli also has the same projection of population though it will be spread over an area of 15,000 acres. The township of Sampla will cover an area of 8500 acres and have a projected population of three lakh by 2021. Jahagirpur Badli will be on Delhi border, Samalkha-Ganaur will be 75 km from Delhi and Sampla will be 45 km from Delhi.

With a view to improving connectivity with Delhi, the Chief Minister stressed that focus should be laid on completion of additional links and also strengthening of existing links. He directed that the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road should be widened and road from Dhansa border to Bijwasan should also be strengthened. It was also decided to construct a railway overbridge on the Kapashera-Biojawasan-Najafgarh road before the Commonwealth Games. A flyover at National Highway No.10 at Nagloi would be completed by December, 2009, it was decided at the meeting.

The progress of Gurgaon action plan costing Rs 776.70 crore was also reviewed. Jakhu said the phase-II action plan had been also got prepared. It runs to over Rs 400 crores. The highlights of phase-II plan are the construction of Hero Honda crossing, construction of a southern peripheral road, northern peripheral and inter-sector connectivity service road parallel to NH-8 and grade separator at junction of Mehrauli road and peripheral road. The Gurgaon-Faridabad Road connecting to NH-8 to peripheral road will be widened and transferred from PWD to HUDA.