Six arrested with liquor
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 30 — The police arrested six persons from various parts of the city for possessing 235 pouches and 96 quarters of whisky.

According to police sources, Jagdish Kumar of Sector 25 was caught from near the roundabout of sectors 22 and 23 with 95 pouches of liquor. Mohinder Singh and Mohinder Pal were arrested from Sector 21 and 140 pouches of whisky were seized from his possession.

Dinesh Kumar of Bapu Dham, Sector 26, was nabbed with 48 quarters of whisky from near the traffic lights between sectors 29 and 30. Bikram Mahto of Labour Colony, Sector 31, was arrested from near Industrial Area with 12 bottles of whisky.

Jai Gopal of Sector 24 was held and 48 quarters of whisky were seized from his possession. Cases under Section 61\1\14 of the Excise Act have been registered.

Caught red-handed: Devinder Singh of SAS Nagar was caught red-handed when he was attempting to steal the car (CH-OI-S-0301) of Mr Swadesh Talwar of Sector 44. A case under Sections 379 and 511 of the IPC has been registered at the police station south.

House burgled: Mr Ashok Kumar of Sector 40 said someone had broken into the house of his neighbour, Mr Davinder Kumar, and decamped with goods. Since the owner was out of station, details of the items stolen could not be ascertained. A case under Section 457 of the IPC has been registered at the Sector 39 police station.

Theft case: Ms Kavita of Sector 22 reported that her car (CHS-528) had been stolen from Sector 17 parking. A case has been registered.

PANCHKULA

Admitted in hospital: Shagun Chand, 64 years, a resident of Kot, was admitted to General Hospital in Sector 6 with head injuries after an accident between his scooter and a Maruti van. However, no case was registered in the matter.

Car stolen: Raj Devinder Singh, a resident of SAS NAgar, in a complaint to the police stated that his car, a Maruti 800cc, (CH-01-2227), was stolen from the parking in front of Nirjhar Vatika in Sector 5.

The police has registered a case.

Vegetables costlier in Panchkula
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Dec 30 — Vegetables were the costlier in the township as compared to Chandigarh and SAS Nagar, with the variation in prices being between Rs 2 and Rs 5 per kg.

Capsicum was priced at Rs 36 a kg in Sector 8 while the price ranged from Rs 32 to Rs 36 in the Sector 9 vegetable market. Beans were available for Rs 20 a kg in Sectors 6 and 7.

Vendors stated that the high price was a deterrent and that there were not many takers for the vegetable. Moongras, meanwhile, were selling a lot, the price being as low as Rs 5 a kg in Sector 8.

Tomatoes were priced at Rs 10 a kg against the prevailing price of Rs 8 a kg in Chandigarh and SAS Nagar. A kg of carrots was priced at Rs 6 while peas were available for Rs 10 a kg in the Sectors 7 and 8 markets.

A bunch of fenugreek was being sold for Rs 3 in Sector 8 while the same was priced at Rs 5 in Sector 6. Cauliflower and cabbage were both priced at Rs 6 a kg and onion and potatoes were available for Rs 8 and Rs 4 a kg, respectively. Turnip could be bought for Rs 6 a kg in the local markets while roadside vendors were selling the vegetable for Rs 8 a kg.

The price of cucumber also went up in comparison to last week. It was available for Rs 16 a kg in Sectors 7 and 8, while it could be had for Rs 18 to Rs 20 from vegetable vendors in Sector 6. A bunch of coriander was also expensive at Rs 5 a bunch against its usual price of Rs 2.

Ginger was priced at Rs 35 a kg and the same quantity of lemon at Rs 30. A kg of pumpkin cost Rs 6 a kg and gourd was priced at Rs 10 a kg. Lady's finger, though out of season, could be bought for Rs 30 a kg.

Impressive performances in tennis, shooting
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Dec 30 — The year 1999 gave much cheer to the sport fraternity and showed laxity by some players and organisers. Sportspersons from the city and nearby areas did well in tennis, shooting, skating, table tennis, badminton and judo but fared poorly in cricket, volleyball, football and athletics.

It was Sunil Kumar of Chandigarh who set the ball rolling for the city by becoming the national senior champion in tennis at the young age of 16. On his fine showing, Naresh Kumar, a former Davis cupper, said, "It is like finding an oyster with a pearl."

Mr Rajan Kashyap, Chairman of the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association and the brain behind the rural talent scheme experiment, said, "This scheme is a gradual process and after years of toiling hard, it has begun to show results." He further said, "The scheme will be extended to Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, since children coming from weaker and rural sections of society have the urge to do something, but due to lack of opportunity, they are deprived of many benefits."

This year, Chandigarh played host to three international tennis tournaments — ITF juniors in January ITF futures in February and ITF women's circuit, which will conclude tomorrow. These tournaments were an eye-opener for players, said Mr Kashyap. He further said more synthetic courts would be added to the CLTA, Sector 10. Another ITF juniors had been upgraded, he said.

Akshay Vishal Rao became the under-18 national champion, Amanjot was the under-16 champion and Tushar Liberhan was runner-up in under-14 section. All are products of Chandigarh.

In women, Harsimran Bedi, Simmi Rani, Tarminder Grover, Neha Singh, Satvika Sabooand Sarbrinder Singh also proved their might. Harsimran won bronze medal in Asian school tennis meet and Neha won the Adidas junior tournament. The Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association had new secretary, Mr Ramsekhar, a keen tennis player.

In shooting, Abhinav Bindra astonished all with his achievements. He won bronze medal at the Commonwealth shooting championship in Auckland (New Zealand). He performed well at the SAF Games in Kathmandu.

Sabeeha Dhillon created a new record in National shooting championship at Phillaur in Punjab by winning gold medal in air rifle event. She also won gold medal in All-India inter-school shooting championship at Meerut. She also won gold medal in Northern India shooting championship at the Sector 25 Shooting Range.

In skating, the Indian roller hockey women's team won bronze medal at the Asian skating meet in China. Most of the women players were from Panchkula and few from Chandigarh. Meenakshi Kohli, who captained the team, was given the best fighter award at the meet. The team had good exposure when the Italian coach Baraldi Aldo undertook a week's coaching camp. Another rink of international standard was opened at Panchkula.

In December Chandigarh hosted the 37th National skating championship.The skaters from city and nearby areas excelled in speed and roller hockey events.

Many tournaments were held at Chandigarh Golf Club. Irina Brar won many prestigious titles, including the Northern India ladies' golf championship. Parnita Grewal also gave a fine performance. Hero Golf-1999 was organised here in November. The Chandigarh Golf Association set a new golf range near Kishangarh village. It hosted an innovative prize distribution function at Rock Garden, where golf apparels were introduced at a fashion show by the NIIFT.

The Chandigarh Badminton Association had a new Chairman, Mr D.K. Mukerjee, who was the founder of the association. He was known as "father of badminton" in this region. The Panjab Universty badminton team won bronze at the all-India inter-varsity badminton tournament.

The Panjab University judo team cornered glory at the all-India inter-varsity meet. The university was the venue for special olympics meet and the Asian baseball meet. All-India inter-varsity wrestling was held in PU, besides national sports festival in badminton.

In April, the India-Pakistan one-day match evoked a good response. The India-New Zealand test match and many Ranji matches were also organised at SAS Nagar.

The Chandigarh Table Tennis Association hosted the 61st junior national table tennis meet at the Sector 23 TT Hall. The city also organised the all-India inter-bank table tennis, north India TT and other regional tournaments this year.

Nadia Saini astonished all by winning cadet, sub-junior and junior titles at the Chandigarh state championship. She qualified for the main draw in the national meet for under-17 players.

Chandigarh held the all-India boxing tournament and national women's sports festival in table tennis, tennis and badminton. Early this year, the Chandigarh Motor Sports Association hosted the all-India Moto Cross, where leading motorcyclists took part. It also hosted the first vintage car rally. Puneet Rana and Harsimran Brar excelled in swimming and Harkiran Singh in skating at the national school games.

On the other hand, the city under-14 cricket team fared badly at the national school games at Datia (Jhansi), where it lost both its matches. The UT Education Department also came in for criticism for its poor hanling of overage players in inter-school matches.

The department refused to host the national school games in five disciplines — hockey, basketball, table tennis, lawn tennis and fencing. These were to be hosted in December this year, but were cancelled.

Much to the amusement of all, the Chandigarh Carnival was organised with great pomp and show at Cricket Stadium, Sector 16, without thinking about the damage to the pitch. The question that if the carnival could be sponsored, why not the national school games, remained unanswered.

The Sector 42 Indoor Hall was closed down for repairs due to excessive damage to the wooden portion. The floor at the Sector 7 Indoor Hall was eaten by termites and needed renovation. The squash courts in Sector 7 needed attention, besides the all-weather swimming pool in Sector 42.