SPORT

Badminton team chosen
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 9 — The Chandigarh Badminton Association has selected a seven-member team which will take part in the Senior National Badminton Championship to be held at Kochi (Kerala) from February 24 to March 1, according to Mr T.P.S. Puri, Secretary of the association. The team was selected on the basis of the performance in the Chandigarh State Badminton Championship which concluded on February 7. The qualifying rounds of the national meet will be played on February 22 and 23.

The members of the team are as follows: Men — Ashish Sharma, Vivek Sharma, Rajnikant Prajapati and Amit Sachdeva; women — Mala Gaba, Geeta Aggarwal and Parneeta.

Surinder Mahajan, a coach posted at Panjab University, will accompany the team as its coach-cum-manager.

Athletics tourney

The Dev Memorial Athletics Meet for veterans and youngsters of the city will be held at Athletics Club, Sector 7. The events will include 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1,500 m races, besides shot put, long jump and 5-km walk. There will be open competitions for boys and girls in 5-km and 3-km races, respectively.

ADMINISTRATION

2000-line exchange for Phase X
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Feb 9 — A new 2,000-line telephone exchange is to be commissioned in Phase X here this month.

Stating this today, Mr Khushwant Rai, Deputy General Manager, said this exchange was likely to be expanded to 5,000 lines next month. It would cover residential Phases VIII, IX, X and XI, the Phase IX Industrial Area and Kambala and Kambali villages.

He said the load would be transferred to the new exchange from the main one in a phased manner. Efforts would be made to provide telephones on demand in the areas under the Phase X exchange in the near future.

Mr Khushwant Rai said a 1,000-line phone exchange was commissioned during the last week of December 1999, in the Phase VII Industrial Area. This would be expanded soon to 2,000 lines. At the main exchange in Phase IV also 1,000 lines would be added. All expansion was being undertaken as part of a development programme.

In Manauli village the C-Dot exchange was being replaced by a remote line (E 10 B RLU) exchange which would improve services in the area.

HUDA employees end strike
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Feb 9 — The protesting employees of the Haryana Urban Development Authority ended their strike here today after the Joint Action Committee comprising representatives of seven organisations held a meeting with the Chief Administrator, Mr NC Wadhwa, at his office in Chandigarh, and arrived at a compromise.

The chain hunger strike ended on the 44th day after Mr Wadhwa offered juice to the employees on a chain fast outside the HUDA complex in Sector 6. The decision to withdraw the strike came after the delegation was assured by the CA that most of their demands within the ambit of the department had already been met and those which required the implementation at the government level had been forwarded by the office of the CA.

The circle chairman of the committee, Mr R.K. Nagar, said that the department would send the demand of regularising of daily wagers, those with break in service, ad hocs and part-timers, reconsideration of allotment of five per cent plot quota, conversion of the EPF to CPF till the pension scheme is implemented, among others, to the government.

He said that the CA had accepted the demand of promotions of surveyors, mechanical, electrical staff as junior engineers after the assembly elections, consultation and discussion with the employees before the making and the implementation of service rules, vacating government houses illegally occupied by the employees and allotment on the basis of seniority and making a transfer policy for employees at the earliest.

Also, they were assured that the office would recommend the cases which were to be accepted at the level of the government.

Cop promoted in open darbar
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Feb 9 — In one case, a constable was given promotion while in another an SI asked to resume duty after having been dismissed from service at the open darbar of the Director-General of Police, Mr S. P. S. Rathore, held at the Police Headquarters in Sector 6, here today. Of the 36 cases attended to during the darbar only 11 cases were civil matters, primarily pertaining to ex gratia.

Constable Ram Kumar from Sirsa district was given a promotion for the courage he displayed in saving the lives of eight persons who were drowning in the Bhakra canal. He informed the DGP that his seniors had recommended his case of promotion and that the ball was in the court of the DGP who acceded to the request.

A former Sub-Inspector, Sardara Singh, was issued instructions to resume duty after he was suspended from duty some three years back for remaining absent from duty. During this period, an inquiry was also conducted and he was dismissed from service.

In a case, which was put before the DGP in the open darbar held in December, the complainants alleged that no action on their complaint had been taken. The complaint had stated that shots had been fired by a few persons of Guniana village in Karnal district. The villagers had named 10 persons involved in the incident. The matter was enquired into by the DSP of the area who allegedly let off two of the 10 accused.

The complainants, Rajpal, Ram Krishan and others who came to the darbar, said that one of the accused let off by the DSP after the inquiry was the Sarpanch of the village who had fired shots in the presence of villagers. They informed the DGP that no order had been received by the CID Crime as ordered in the pervious darbar. Today, the matter was marked to SP (Crime).

Two cases of dispute over a pathway in villages also came up for hearing. The DGP issued instructions to the police stations concerned to conduct an inquiry and give justice to the two parties. A couple of departmental inquiries were directed to the District Attorney.

A report of the darbar held in January was also presented before the proceedings.

Allegations levelled by two applicants were found to be false, comments on two cases were awaited and four case were pending with the respective departments.

The two cases where charges levelled were found false include that of Mangtu Ram from Jhajjar who had demanded initiating action against Jassu, who had allegedly tried to rob the applicant by taking his jeep fraudulently. The other case pertained to Jaimal Singh's complaint for taking action against two villagers of Bhilpur for trespassing on his land and against the SHO of the police station concerned for not initiating any action against them.

The DGP was informed that the police had acted on a letter of Col S. P. Singh seeking inquiry into a case of molestation of the wife of Naik Krishan Kumar. The police had conducted the inquiry and registered a case at Bari police station. One of the accused, Ombir Singh of Deegal, has been arrested in this regard while efforts to arrest the second accused are on. The action taken report also mentioned that the SHO Bari had been instructed to add Section 354 of the IPC in the FIR.

The other matters pertained to appointments and transfers.