Viru's society bats on rough pitch

A swanky school under the title ‘Sehwag International School’ stands on the leased land and nowhere seen or functional is the cricket academy that was promised. The incumbent Congress regime in the state had leased a 23 acre to the society for the purpose of including a cricket academy for budding cricketers.

Some residents of village Shilani Kesho in the district now say they will move the SC against Sehwag’s Krishna Drishti Educational Society after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on
Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by two advocates.

The land was leased out in October 2008 on a 33-year lease for a sports complex and a school at Rs 3 lakh per acre. The incumbent Hooda-government, however, reduced the lease money to a mere Rs 51,000, allegedly without taking the panchayat into confidence.

The petition was dismissed on the grounds that the petitioner did not have the locus standi to move the court on the issue. Advocate Rakesh Chahar  of the High Court in Delhi said Sehwag set up a school on the land leased for setting up a sports academy. The school has been charging a hefty fee, he claimed. The panchayat had passed a resolution on August 9, 2008 for granting land for a sports academy and not the school, he added.

CEO of Sehwag’s school Vishnu Mittal said the allotment of land was for an integrated sports academy and school. He said they have reserved five per cent seats for students of the village which gave the land for the academy.

The school was a nonprofit organisation and it did not charged disproportionate fee.