CHANDIGARH, July 4 — LAC Nasruddin of the Training Command won three gold medals in the 56 kg class on the opening day of the Air Force Inter-Command Weightlifting Championship in Lecma Auditorium at 3 Base Repair Depot (3BRD), Air Force, here today.

Earlier, the five-day meet featuring eight command teams was inaugurated by Air Officer Commanding 3 BRD, Air Commodore Arvind Aggarwal. He also gave away prizes to the winners of the 56 kg class.

In this meet, the team for the Services Championship to be held aboard INS Valsura will also be selected. Prominent weightlifters participating in the meet include Warrant Officer Harnam Singh, a former Commonwealth Games gold medallist and national record holder in the 100 kg snatch. He is also a qualified NIS coach. Another reputed player in the meet is Sergeant Parmod Kumar Sharma, a silver-medal winner in the 100 kg class at the 1996 National Meet.

Today's events included only snatch, clean-and-jerk and total in the 56 kg class. Nasruddin of the Training Command lifted a total 195 kg, while LAC Sarjesh Kumar of the Western Air Command followed him with 177.5 kg. Cpl Shree Kumar secured the third place by lifting 170 kg.

Tomorrow, the weighing-in for the 62 kg class will be done at 2.30 pm and the competition will be held at 4.30 pm. The 69 kg class events will also be held at 6.30 pm after the weighing-in at 4.30 pm.

Results: (56 kg class) snatch — LAC Nasruddin (TC) 85 kg (1), LAC Sarjesh Kumar (WAC) 80 kg (2), Cpl Shree Kumar (TC) 75 kg (3).

CHANDIGARH, July 4 — The special sanitation drive of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC), which concluded today, has failed to have the desired effect.

The drive, which was launched by the UT Administrator, Lieut-Gen JFR Jacob (Retd), in Sector 47 on June 17 with much fanfare seemed to have partially succeeded if the littering of the garbage in the open and overflowing garbage bins are any indication.

To have first-hand information and do a follow-up on the drive, a Tribune team today visited Sector 47 — the sector chosen by the civic body for the start of the drive about a fortnight back. The sanitary conditions seemed only marginally better as compared to a fortnight back.

As the team entered Sector 47-C, it was greeted by a virtually overflowing garbage bin placed in a park. Stray animals shuffled through the bin and a rag-picker littered the garbage in the open, exposing the residents to health hazards.

At a short distance from this area, garbage was lying littered around the garbage bin with stray cattle having a field day. It may be recalled that the garbage around this particular bin remained littered for a long time.

As one entered the sector from the South-East end, one is greeted by an overflowing bin and it seemed that the garbage had not been removed for the past several days.

While adequate number of garbage bins could be seen in the Sector 47(C and D), the same could not be said of the Sector 47 (A and B). The team could only spot a couple of garbage bins in these sub-sectors with the result that the residents threw the garbage in the vast open space in and around the sector.

Meanwhile, other related activities like removal of congress grass, repair of the road gullies and clearing off the sewerage, which were supposed to be carried out along with the drive, had not been done. The deadly weed—congress grass—is growing wildly in the sector making the MCC claims hallow.