A high-level allotment committee of the Haryana Government on Wednesday cleared allotment of industrial plots to 51 units in various industrial estates developed by The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation. The committee is headed by P.K. Chaudhery, Principal Secretary and Financial Commissioner for Industries and Commerce. Mr. Chaudhery said that these projects when implemented would catalyse an investment of Rs.2,300 crore besides providing direct employment to more than 5,000 people. These plots have been allotted in Growth Centre Bawal Phase II and industrial estates at Barhi and Saha in Sonepat district and Ambala respectively. HSIIDC Managing Director Rajeev Arora disclosed that the allotments had been made in diverse fields .

The Board of Approval (BoA) of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on Monday cleared 14 new proposals, including ten formal approvals. While two SEZs each have been cleared in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, one each will come up in Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The BoA granted formal approvals to two SEZs of the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. (SIPCOT), one for transport engineering goods at Tirunelveli and another of automobile and auto ancillary at Thiruvannamalai. Similarly, two SEZs of Mahindra Worldcity (Jaipur) Ltd. of handicrafts and light engineering at Jaipur were given formal approvals. Other SEZs cleared include an information technology SEZ by Videocon Realtors and Infrastructure Ltd. at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, IT SEZ by Devbhumi Realtors Pvt. Ltd. at Ranga Reddy District in Andhra Pradesh, pharmaceuticals SEZ by JB SEZ Pvt. Ltd. at Panoli in Gujarat and Power SEZ by Wardha Power Company at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. According to Commerce Secretary G. K. Pillai, who also heads the Board of Approval, so far formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 439 SEZs out of which 201 have been notified as on date. The Commerce Secretary said that over Rs. 67,347 crore had been invested in these notified SEZs, giving direct employment to 97,478 persons, which is in addition to the employment provided to 1.83 lakh persons by the seven Central Government established SEZs.

Seeking relief: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi listens to the grievances of farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra at her residence in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday assured delegations of farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra that she would convey their budgetary demands to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The delegations sought waiver of farmers' debts, reduction in interest rates on loans, remunerative prices for farm produce, health insurance for farm families and crop insurance. They highlighted the high costs of inputs, crop losses on account of calamities (Rajasthan delegation spoke about the heavy damage to mustard crop from frost), lack of adequate power and poor quality of seeds. Among those who formed part of the delegations were S.S. Surjewala, Ashok Gehlot and Mukul Wasnik. On Friday, farmers' representatives have convened an emergency meeting of the National Council of the organisation of farmers and farm labour to discuss the financial and social problems of farmers. They will finalise a charter of demands to be sent to the Prime Minister.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the next financial year's budget to be presented shortly would have an outlay of Rs 6,600 crore. The figure was thrice the amount for the first budget after he took over as Chief Minister three years ago. Addressing a Congress rally here, he said this was proof enough of his claims that Haryana had made unprecedented progress during the past three years under the Congress rule. He said it also indicated that he was taking the state in the right direction for making it the number one state in the country.

Chandigarh, February 12 Emboldened by its previous success in pisciculture, the Haryana government is planning to bring 20,000 hectares of water area under pisciculture and to produce 90,000 tonnes of fish by stocking 4,000 lakh seed soon. An area of 200 hectares would be renovated under the National Fisheries Development Board, for which the Board had released Rs 24.5 lakh.

Chandigarh, February 12 Gram panchayats have been actively involved to improve the functioning of public distribution system (PDS). Panchayat members would verify the entries of items of PDS made in the stock registers of the fair price shops of the State Food and Supplies Department.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court order of October 20, 2002, had banned mining in the Aravali hills and had observed that the whole hill system came under the category of

the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) has attracted serious criticism after granting clearances for two mining projects in Faridabad in July 2006. The Supreme Court of India has

the second week of November saw south and central Delhi reeling under a severe water crisis because of high levels of ammonia in the Yamuna at the city's water intake point. It led to a reduction in