Sonepat sorrow vs Gurgaon glory

SONEPAT: Same state, same people, same administration, and yet the tale of two cities is so different. If it is the best of times for Gurgaon, it is the worst of times for Sonepat. Delhi''s original satellite town Sonepat seems to have got lost in the razzle-dazzle of Gurgaon.
If Gurgaon''s skyline has surpassed all Indian towns, Sonepat is still to get a decent multi-storey.The BPO-MNC rush has struck gold in Gurgaon, but in Sonepat, existing industries are folding up.
A few big names that "colonised" Gurgaon have set foot on the outskirts of Sonepat giving hope. "Give us a quarter of Gurgaon, we will be content," says Sandeep Kaushik, a driver from Sonepat town.
Part of the NCR, Sonepat had all the potential to become an extension of the Capital. But to its misfortune, it fell on the wrong side of Haryana.
Sonepat''s absence on the political map of Haryana also added to its hardship. "Neither Bhajan Lal nor Om Prakash Chautala belong to this area so they showed little interest here," explains schoolteacher Rajkumar.
So people from Sonepat are hardly amazed when projects for town development are nipped in the bud. The proposal to have Haryana''s own mini-airport in Sonepat and the Asia''s biggest horticulture market in Rai were put on paper by one government, written off by the next. "As elections approached, Chautala told us if he is given another chance, we will make an airport and the mandi. Our question is: What was he doing in the last five years?" says Rajkumar
With the anti-INLD sentiment dominant in this assembly poll, BJP and Congress are playing the "poor, left-out" Sonepat plank to cement it. "Land that was allotted for the horticulture market has been sold off as industrial plots. Water levels have gone down and electricity has become scarce. There is nothing left to hold the existing industries, forget about inviting foreign ones," Kishan Singh Sanghwan, the sole BJP MP from Sonepat alleges.
Not aspiring for the sky, Sonepat residents say they would be content with the basics. "Give us clean drinking water, an extra railway line for better train connectivity with Delhi, one big industry, and sewerage and roads," says Kaushik.