28 anti-social elements held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — Continuing its drive against the anti-social elements, the police has arrested 28 persons from various parts of the city during the past 24 hours.

According to the police, while seven persons have been arrested under Sections 41.2/109 of the CrPC, eight have been rounded up under Sections 107/151 of the CrPC. As many as 15 miscreants have been held under Sections 34-5-61 of the Police Act.

Gambling: The police has arrested seven persons for gambling at public places.

The police said while Sunil Pal, Suresh Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Sonu were the residents of Bapu Dham Colony, the remaining three, Ramesh Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Subhash Kumar, belonged to Sector 24.

Cases under the Gambling Act have been registered against them.

Car taken away: Mr Deepak Malhotra, having his office at Quite Office, Sector 35-A, in a complaint with the police alleged that his car (CH01-Y-6157), which was taken away by Jai Kishan Goel and his wife, had not been returned.

A case has been registered.

Scooter stolen: Mr Iqbal Singh, a resident of Sector 22, alleged that his scooter had been stolen from his residence.

The police has registered a case.

PANCHKULA

Killed: Ashok Kumar, a resident of Mahespur village, died after being knocked down by a truck near the village here on Sunday. The victim was walking along the Zirakpur-Panchkula road when the truck hit him. The driver of the truck fled from the scene of the accident.

The police has registered a case.

Poll with a difference

WITH 10 days to go for the last day of filing nomination papers for the lone Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, electioneering has been gradually picking up momentum here. In fact, some of the candidates, including the Senior Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Krishan Lal Sharma, have actually started going door to door to make a head start. Besides that of the BJP, other candidates already in the fray are Mr Mata Ram Dhiman of the Bahujan Samaj Party who will be supported by the local unit of the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal.

The local unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) is putting up Mrs Bimla Sapna. Mr Ravi Parkash Kansal, who heads the Chandigarh unit of Lok Shakti, has already started his campaigning by holding corner meetings in labour colonies and slums.

Besides, a model, Ms Palac Shri, has also made known her intentions to contest from Chandigarh. She has been visiting rural areas and colonies.

The latest to join the electoral politics will be ex-servicemen. They have launched the local unit of Rashtriya Raksha Dal, political wing of the Indian Ex-Services League. The Dal has decided to contest the Chandigarh seat at "all costs".

While political parties and organisations are getting actively involved in the electioneering, there may be some interesting changes in the contests this time. Unlike previous years, the Elections Department may not put any woman employee on election duty.

Also, for the first time, electronic voting machines will be used at all 650 polling booths. Election staff is being trained and public awareness campaign on new EVMs has been started at the election office here.

Even politically, the contest will be different in flavour. For the first time in last three elections, two of the main players — Mr Harmohan Dhawan and Mr Satya Pal Jain — will be missing from the contestant's arena. The third player, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, still stands a chance to get the nod of the party high command. In case he gets it, it will be his fourth consecutive election from here.

The number of electorate from Chandigarh has gone up more than 45,000.

Flight of fantasy

With the social scene of the city livening up with innumerable fashion shows and sometimes crazy parties like pyjama parties and rain-dance parties, even the invitation cards do not come simple these days. A fashion show held recently by a local design institute had its entry passes designed in the shape of air tickets, in keeping with the title of the fashion show — "Flight of Fashion Fantasy". The ticket listed the name of the institute as the "carrier", the venue as the "airport" and had even added "over 200 creations of fashion and textile design students" under the heading of "tour-code".

And another time, again in keeping with the theme, a rain-dance party designed its invitation cards in the shape of, what else, umbrellas! The umbrella-shaped cards even had a drinking straw attached to them, to serve the purpose of holding the cards.

For rickshaw pullers

With a view to liberating rickshaw pullers from the unscrupulous rickshaw lenders, the Good Shepherd Social Service Centre, SAS Nagar, has come out with a "Rickshaw pullers benefit scheme".

Launched by Father Josheph Kelethil on the feast of St Agnatious of Loyola, 60 rickshaws worth Rs 2.40 lakh have been provided by the centre under the scheme. The beneficiaries will have to pay the cost of a rickshaw in 40 equal instalments of Rs 100.

According to the programme coordinator, Mr S.D. Kalia, the centre decided to start the scheme as a large number of poor persons hired the rickshaws at the rent of Rs 20 per day. In addition they deposited a security of Rs 500 for which they took loan at a high interest rate.

The centre proposes to give 100 rickshaws this year.

Dev Samaj, GMSSS-18 in final
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — Hosts IS Dev Samaj Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 21, and Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 18, will fight for top honours in the Shriman Ishwar Singh Memorial Basketball Tournament for school girls of the city which entered its penultimate day here today.

In the first semi-final played in the evening, the GGSSS-18 overpowered Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, 31-4. Half-time score was 21-0. Sarita and Poonam scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the winners. Navneet and Gagan scored two points each.

In the second semi-final, Dev Samaj Girls proved to be too good for Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, as the latter lost the match, 8-39. Harpreet remained the top scorer for the Dev Samaj team, followed by Shveta with eight points and Amandeep with four points. For the GMSSS-16 team Anu, Gayatri and Charu scored two points each.

Tomorrow, the finals will be played at 5pm and the chief guest will be Mr K.S. Sidhu, IAS and Deputy Commissioner of Roopnagar.

Squash tourney: Anjaman Shukla, Harmeet and Varun Malik won title matches in the age groups of under-12, under-14 and under-16, respectively, on the concluding day of the Ranking Squash Championships for schools of the region in which six teams took part.

In the under-12 final, Anjaman of Lawrence School, Sanawar, upset top seed Kabir Dixit of YPS, SAS Nagar, by beating him in four gruelling sets, 3-9, 9-6, 9-1, 10-9. Harmeet of YPS, SAS Nagar, bagged the under-14 title, beating Dushyant Malik of Lawrence School, Sanawar, also in four sets, 9-3, 6-9, 10-9, 9-4.

Varun Malik, also of Lawrence School, Sanawar, got the better of YPS player R. Grover in the under-16 section by beating him in three straight sets, 9-6, 10-8, 9-4.

Earlier in the-semi finals of the under-12 section, Kabir ousted Mahir of YPS, 9-1, 9-1, 9-2 while A. Shukla beat Harinder, also of YPS, 9-0, 9-1, 9-7. Later, Harinder stood third and Mahir secured fourth place.

In the under-14 semi-finals, Harmeet defeated J. Sekhon of YPS, 10-8, 9-0, 9-5 while D. Malik beat M. Malhi, 9-5, 9-4, 9-6. Third place was won by Jai Sekhon and the fourth by M. Malhi.

In the under-16 semi-finals, Varun Malik of Lawrence School, Sanawar, defeated Madhur Gupta of St Stephen's School, Sector 45, in three tough sets, 9-3, 9-6, 9-5. It was surprising that despite having no squash court in his school, Madhur played a wonderful game.

In the other semi-final, R. Grover beat A. Goel, 5-9, 9-6, 9-7, 9-0. Third place was secured by A. Goel and the fourth went to Madhur Gupta.

According to Mr Amarjot Inder Singh, squash coach at the YPS, these players will now play in the second ranking tournament to be held next month.

CBA to bid for Asia Cup
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — The Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) will bid for the Asia Cup/Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament during 2000, if India gets the same. This was decided at the executive committee meeting of the association held here, which was chaired by Mr MC Sethi, President of the CBA. He later also released the calendar of activities of the CBA upto June next year.

The development programmes of the association for the next three years was also disclosed by Mr TPS Puri, the newly-appointed Secretary of the CBA. He was appointed when the previous Secretary, Mr DK Mukerjee, was elevated to the Chairman- Emeritus of CBA.

The association will also bid for next year’s Junior National Badminton Championship for under-19 boys and girls.

The development programme, aims at giving more exposure to promising players. It was also decided to make use of improved shuttlecocks for training and tournaments. The kits and other financial benefits were high on the agenda, said Mr MC Sethi.

The coaching camp held in June had been a major success. The excellent performance of the city players at the All India Krishna Khaitan Memorial Badminton Tournament held in Chennai in July was appreciated by every member of the committee.

Later this month, players of the city will take part in the All India Grand Prix Tournament, to be held in Maharashtra.

It was also decided to hold the selection trials-cum-ranking tournament for all age groups from September 9 to 12, followed by a preparatory camp for selected players in each age group.

As the North Zone Inter State Badminton Championship is scheduled to be held at Jammu from September 22 to 25, the selection of the players will also be made on the basis of the said trials. The camp will start on September 13 and end on September 20 for juniors and seniors. For mini boys and girls it will continue upto September 30.

Before that they will proceed for the Mini National Badminton Championship, to be held at Vijayawada in October.

The Chandigarh State Badminton Championship for all age groups, including veterans, will be held from September 24 to 28. This will serve as the basis of selection of players for the junior and senior national badminton championships, going to be held at Kohima from December 21 to 27 and for seniors from January 3 to 10 at Cochin. In the off season, the coaching camp will be held at Panjab University Indoor Hall.

In June next year, a one month coaching camp will be held at Shilaroo ( Shimla-HP) for exposing players to high altitude training, which is vital for endurance.

Inter-school tourney: The Sova Inter School Tennis Ball Cricket Tournament will begin here tomorrow at St Anne’s Convent School, Sector 32, with 15 teams taking part. This six-day tournament will witness a tough schedule till the finals, which will be played on August 14 at the same venue.

The interesting part about this game is that even on wet grounds, matches can be played. The tennis ball is lighter than the regular tennis ball. The first match will be played between Mount Carmel School, Sector 46, and AKS International Public School, Sector 41, at 8.30 am tomorrow.

Under-12 football: Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, defeated Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Sector 29, in a tie-breaker, to sail into the third round of the sixth Shivalik Football Trophy for under-12 boys in progress at the Panjab University grounds.

St Xavier’s School, Sector 44, blanked Government Senior Secondary School, Karsan 4-0, with Jong Song Lee scoring two goals and Andrew Roy and Amit Kumar scoring one goal each.

Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, trounced Government High School, Sector 28, 3-0. Gurjot scored the first goal in the 25th minute, followed by TS Badwal in 27th minute and Madhur Swapan in 35th minute.

In the fourth match of the day, Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 38, prevailed upon GSSS, Karsan, in the tie-breaker at 2-1. Sunny and Jaspal of GSSS-38 scored one each in the penalty stroke, while for the losers Babloo was the main scorer.

In the fifth match, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, went down fighting to Government Model High School, Sector 38, by one goal.Gursewak was the lone scorer for GMHS-38.

Raunaq Singh and Bakul Khera helped St Kabir School, Sector 26, in beating Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 15. They scored one goal each, the score being 2-0.

Shivalik School-41 boys routed GHKPS, Sector 41, by five goals to one. Gurman scored the first goal in the 10th minute, followed by Pardeep in the 16th and 18th minute and Rahul in the 35th and 39th minute. For the losers Amandeep scored the solitary consolation goal in the early part of the game.

Military unpreparedness bane of Indian state

Apropos of a news item in Chandigarh Tribune of August 3. Military unpreparedness has been the bane of Indian state since times immemorial with the exception of 1971.

In the recent Kargil war, Indian soldiers were fighting in high altitude sub-zero temperatures without even proper boots and snow clothing. Those who had been following the visual media, specially the BBC, could see the Pakistani artillery gun positions with “proper over head protection” and their gunners wearing bullet-proof jackets. Our artillery gun positions did not even have proper camouflage nets, leave aside the “over head protection”. There was shortage of ammunition and the government had to procure the same from South Africa and other sources. The government has no security doctrine and a vital aspect as national defence is handled in an ad hoc and haphazard manner.

Despite the failure of the government in intelligence and logistics, the nation responded very well and donated cash and blood liberally.

The efforts of the ex-servicemen to organise themselves as a political force are fully appreciated, for unless the armed forces have a voice in Parliament, they would continue to be sent into war unprepared by ignorant and self-seeking politicians.

It is high time the service chiefs put their foot down and say “enough is enough”.

Brig Harwant Singh (retd)
SAS Nagar

Dowry menace

It is really disheartening to note that the evil of dowry is still prevailing in our society even after 52 years of Independence. The position of women in India is far from satisfactory. We talk about women’s equality, liberalisation and freedom, but all that is rubbish as women continue to be suppressed in our male-dominated society.

A large number of women continue to be exploited physically and mentally. Parmajit Kaur Pable was also one of them, who was harassed and ill-treated for bringing insufficient dowry.

Despite steps by the Supreme Court to stop exploitation of women, murders, rapes, dowry deaths and other crimes against women continue. Action should be taken against those who indulge in such crimes. Besides, awareness programmes should be started for women to enable them to fight for their rights. Complaint centres should be set up so that women can report cases of harassment.

Sunil Dogra
Chandigarh

Pickpockets in hospital

I went to the Sector 32 Government Hospital on July 22 at 8.30 a.m for consultation and for getting clearance for surgery from the medical department of the hospital. The doctor in the medical department on first level advised me to get the file so that he could record the necessary clearance.

I, therefore, went to the section concerned on the first level reception to contact the official and collect my file. There was rush at the window. I managed to give my card to the official concerned. I went to the reception lounge on the first level to check the position of the file. While waiting for the file, some one picked my pocket and I lost cash amounting to Rs 200, and my driving licence and some important papers.

The role of the security staff/policemen deployed in the reception lounge of the hospital is to check crime and enforce discipline.

The administrative wing of the hospital, in general, and the security staff/police, in particular, have to show more concern about the problem.

G.K Chawla
Chandigarh

Looking beyond Kargil

The country is now looking beyond Kargil. The woes of widows, orphans and ex-servicemen, particularly the disabled, need to be addressed sympathetically by the nation.

Ex-servicemen seem to be last on the government’s agenda. Pensions of dependants of 17,000 dead, 30,000 wounded, 2,500 disabled (figures-India Today, July 26) remain dismally inadequate.

The fact is that no accurate figure is available of the disabled as the Artificial Limbs Centre (ALC) at Pune does not maintain records of patients treated.

In the next two months till a new government comes into office, Army Headquarters, Director-General Resettlements, Indian Ex-services League State Units, Defence Pension Disbursement Officers and non government agencies need to compile a directory of war widows and disabled veterans to ensure that they get their dues and their dependants get the concessions due to them.

All earlier cases need to be brought at par with Kargil casualties.

Maj-Gen MPS Mann (retd.)
Chandigarh