SPORT

‘Judokas need financial security’
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 — Two former judo Olympians — Cawas K. Billimoria of Maharashtra and Narinder Kumar of Punjab — were here for the Senior National Judo Championship, which began at the Sector 42 Indoor Hall. Cawas represented India at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, while Narinder at Barcelona and at Atlanta Olympics is 1996.

Cawas, is Technical Director here, being appointed by the Judo Federation of India. Narinder took to coaching after taking retirement from active play. These nationals will be the first for Narinder to act as referee.

Cawas, was of the opinion that professionalism was the only way for real growth of this game. He is now employed with the Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited at Mumbai. He took to judo in 1975 at the age of 13. His first major national title came in 1991 in the open category. In those days, the open section was more than 80 kg only, which nowadays is more then 100 kg.

Cawas opined that the physique of North Indians was commensurate with the skill required in this game. He bagged the Commonwealth silver medal and the SAF Games gold medal. Asked about his performance in Barcelona, he said just prior to the Olympics, he received a minor injury on his left thumb and went down fighting to fifth seed judoka from Luxembourg.

Regarding injuries, he said it was rare, unlike other games, though at wrong moves, ankle injuries could occur. He was of the opinion that there was a dire need of inviting foreign coaches to train our players as sending our judokas to foreign countries could be expensive. He felt satisfied with Narinder, who had taken to active coaching.

Narinder won the national title for 13 years in a row. He hails from Jalandhar and is now working with Punjab Police. He hoped that in the next Commonwealth Judo Championship is Canada, India might win a few medals. He praised Yashpal Solanki, who could win two gold medals. He added that he was concentrating at between 60 and 81kg in men and women.

Narinder was not satisfied with the standard of Judokas in recent times and said prize money tournaments and career security could be the solution.

The game was not very costly and if any judoka worked hard, no power could deny him success, said Cawas. He stressed that our judokas must develop confidence and shed inferiority complex.

He said after Japan and Korea, France was becoming a power in this game. He said the ideal age to start judo was 10 years and height above 6 feet for men would be a good preposition. He felt that the zeal to fight was missing in our judokas.

Both said judokas needed financial security. They were happy at the way Chandigarh played host to the senior national meet.

Cawas advocated a more pragmatic approach by the corporate houses for the promotion of judo, in which Indians had immense potential.

Bhavna declared best
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 — Bhavna of Electronics and Computer Engineering Department was declared best athlete at the two-day annual athletics meet of Government Polytechnic for Women, Sector 10.

On February 13, the meet was inaugurated by Mr Balbir Singh. About 250 students participated in various sport and took a march-past.

The sport events included cricket, kho kho, throwball, badminton, long jump and high jump.

Dr S.K. Aggarwal, Director, Technical Education, UT, presided over the function and gave away the prizes. In his speech, he advised students to take active part in sport in order to remain healthy and fit.

Veterans’ athletics: More than 500 veteran athletes took part in the Dev Memorial athletic meet held at Sector 7 Sports Complex, Mr Baldev Singh Dhindsa, a former Asian gold medallist in cycling, was the chief guest.

The results are: Five-km walk: men: 50-60 years: Gurdial Singh 1, Amrik Singh 2, Ashok Kumar 3; above 60 years; J.S. Grewal 1, D.K. Sagoo 2, R.R. Batta 3; 800 m: 40-50 years; Sada Ram 1, Jatinder Singh 2, Raghbir Singh 3; 50-60 years; Jagjit Singh 1, B.R. Verma 2, S.D. Sharma 3; above 60 years: Ram Dutt 1, Amrik Singh 2; 400 m: Sada Ram 1, Dilbagh Singh 2, Raghbir Singh 3; 50-60 years: Jagjit Singh 1, Rampal 2, Ashok Kumar 3; above 60 years: D.K. Saggar 1, S.S. Grewal 2, Amrik Singh 3; 40- 50 years: 100 m: Harbans Singh 1, Rachpal Singh 2, Najar Singh 3; 50-60 years: Ram Kishore 1, S.D. Sharma 2, Mohan Singh 3; above 60 years: G.S. Saulakha 1, Dharamvir Sharma 2, Surjit Singh 3; shot put: 40-50 years: Jagir Singh 1, Kulwinder Singh 2, Gurwinder Singh 3; 50-60 years: Sarwan Singh 1, Kulwinder Singh 2, Zora and G.S. Sindra 3; above 60 years: Bhatti 1, Jaspal Singh 2, J.S. Grewal 3; 200 m: above 40 years: Harbans Singh 1, Rachpal Singh 2, Sada Ram 3; above 50 years: Ram Kishore 1, Rampal 2, Mohan Singh 3; above 60 years: G.S. Saukhla 1, Dharamvir 2, Surjeet Singh 3; 400 m: above 35 years: Nirmal Saini 1, Sudha Joshi 2; above 45 years: Bimla Saini 1, Shyam Lata 2, Chanchal Saggar 3; 1500 m: men: Dilbagh Singh 1, Jatinder Singh 2, BK Joshi 3; 50-60 years: Amrik Singh 1, Jagjit Singh 2, BR Verma 3;

Five km race: men: Puran Chand 1, Sunil Yadav 2, Sunil 3; women: Kavita Rani 1, Paramjeet Kaur 2, Monika 3.

Volleyball tourney: IRIA Kot ‘A’ team of Chandigarh won first prize in the volleyball tournament organised by the Chamoli Parvatiya Vikas Parishad, Chandigarh. Uttrakhand Vikas Samiti, Mouli Complex, won the second prize. Eight teams took part in the tournament.

Mr Raj Kumar Goyal, Councillor, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh inaugurated the tournament. Prizes were given away by Mr Ram Murti Mahajan, President, Mahajan Sabha, Chandigarh. Mr Dinesh Semwal, President, and Mr Harish Benjwal, General Secretary, respectively of the parishad, congratulated both teams and thanked all members for their cooperation.

City players win six medals
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 — City karate players won three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal in the 3rd National men and women karate Championship in sub-junior, junior and senior sections organised by the All-India Karate Federation, held at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh from February 11 to 13.

Results of Chandigarh team are as follows — sub-junior boys: Karanvir (Shishu Niketan) below 26 kg (silver medal); Sohit Verma (MDAV-22) below 32 kg (gold medal); Mohit Verma (MDAV-22) below 38 kg (gold medal); Sub-Junior girls: Sandeep Kaur (MDAV-22) below 28 kg (bronze medal); Neena (Sarangpur) below 38 kg (silver medal); Junior girls: Anuradha (GGSS-21) below 54 kg (gold medal).

ADMINISTRATION

PUDA housing scheme
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Feb 14 — A middle income group (MIG) housing scheme of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) in Sector 66 here, which closed on February 12, has attracted 1177 applications. At least 452 houses will be allotted under the scheme.

The Chief Administrator of PUDA, Mr K.B.S. Sidhu, said 99 houses had been reserved for categories like SC/ST, physically challenged, freedom fighters, sports persons, defence and para military personnel and gallantry award winners. In response to an LIG scheme in Sector 66 here, 4633 applications had been received against 696 plots.

The dates for holding the draw of lots for the LIG and MIG schemes have been fixed February 24 and March 3, respectively. Mr Sidhu said the criteria of the monthly family income for the LIG and MIG houses had been revised. For the LIG houses, it was from Rs 2101 to Rs 6000. For the MIG houses it was from Rs 6000 to 12,000.

SDO’s office being given a facelift
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 14 — The old and dusty office of the SDO, Buildings where anyone who owns property in Chandigarh has to go for work, is presently undergoing a change. It is in this office that records of all commercial and residential property of Chandigarh are stored.

The office, located in Sector 17 in the 30 Bays building, has earmarked a separate area for the staff that deals with public. A fresh coat of white paint makes the office a welcome sight. However, the biggest change is the record room. Earlier locating a file meant facing a mountain of dusty files with no system. Such was the state that daylight was stopped under the virtual mountain of files.

All this has changed. Neat steel racks have been used to stack the files. The department has stacked them under a system under which they allot a file number for each plot in the city. Today locating a file can be done in a few minutes.

Already discussions to computerise the records of the department are under way. Sources said directions are awaited from the top before this project gets underway. But the real impact will be felt only when records of the Estate Office and the office of the SDO, Buildings, are computerised simultaneously, said an official.

Meanwhile, a proposal to fill the vacant posts of Junior Engineers, who form an integral part of the department, is being considered at the level of the Secretary, Engineering , Mr Rakesh Singh. At present 5 of the 9 posts are vacant, thus crippling the all important field staff that checks for any violations and verifies the physical completion of buildings.

At present only 4 JEs are doing duty that covers a wide area in the city. Since 1952 a total of 9 posts of JEs have been sanctioned in the department. Besides, the office also has to deal with owners of commercial property, clear plans, issue various certificates required at the time of construction and also issue completion certificates.

On the other hand, the Chandigarh Administration has taken a step backwards by withdrawing the phone facility available with the SDO Buildings. The phone has been shifted to the main Estate Office Building.