21 drains of Delhi, one from Uttar Pradesh carry untreated effluent into the river'

The time is ripe for a south Asian electricity market

An area of over 19,600 hectares has been brought under plantation in Haryana at a cost of Rs.43 crore during the Tenth Five Year Plan with the help of 20 Forest Development Agencies (FDAs). This was revealed at a day-long workshop on implementation of National Afforestation Programme (NAP) held at Pinjore near here on Saturday where emphasis was laid on active involvement of women in joint management of forests.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Friday that the State Government had prepared a blueprint to eradicate unemployment. Redressing the grievances of people at Rohtak, he said large industrial units would be set up in all parts of the State and many such units had already been set up. This would solve the problem and ''hardly any family would be left unemployed'. He said the proposed Industrial Model Township in Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi, would house large industrial units.

Failing to kick-start its ambitious Rs 1,850 crore Nanocity project -building a sustainable city with world-class infrastructure - in Haryana's Panchkula district, Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia's company Nanocity Developers Pvt Ltd has initiated talks with private property developers to bail out the project.

With about 20 biomass-based power projects generating 183 MW at Sirsa, Panipat, Karnal, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Nilokheri, Jagadhari, Khanesar and Dabwali, the people of Haryana can be assured of lesser power cuts. As the projects are being set up at the sites of the load centres, the power supply is expected to increase in these blocks, with transmission losses going down in a big way. Confirming this, officials of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) said since the state is purchasing massive power from other states, it has to bear huge transmission losses.

In the district of Sirsa in Haryana, wage rates have increased appreciably after the nregs started being implemented there. Being a cotton-producing district, the daily wage for cotton-picking workers was around Rs85 when the scheme was launched. While the scheme offered Rs95, workers shifted to projects run under the scheme.

The Supreme Court today did not allow a plea of Haryana to "lift' water from the Bhakra main line (BML)canal and pump it into the Hansi-Butana. The stay on puncturing the BML to connect the Hansi-Butana canal will continue and the matter will be now heard on July 18. Notably Haryana had submitted a proposal in the apex court to lift 500 cusecs of water through pumping and send it down the Hansi-Butana canal. This is a significant move as by-elections are due in Haryana on May 22.

A large number of students of primary schools in the district are suffering from anaemia and worm infection. To tackle the problem, a campaign to "de-worm" primary schoolchildren of the state has been started with a target of giving oral pills to 13,63,466 students. The children will be given a tablet of albandazole (400 mg).