SPORT

Football academy aspirants enthusiastic
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — “We have come here to become good football players”. These views were expressed by Gurpanthbir Singh, who along with 15 others, have come all the way from Khokhar Faujian, a village 8 km from Batala in Gurdaspur district. Fifteen boys in the age groups of 9-10 were here to take part in the Chandigarh Football Academy at the Sector 7 sports complex.

“What prompted us to come to the city was the unique kind of football academy being floated in the city”, said Harcharan “Gogi’, also of the same village. A former JCT player and now employed with Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, Harcharan said the boys were impressed by the fact that if selected they would get free boarding, lodging, education and, above all, expert coaching.

Harcharan said a former football player of their village Amandeep, who had played for the East Bengal team, helps in grooming these boys. A parent Bhagat Singh said the village boys were fully dedicated to football. Another parent Kulwinder Singh said the Punjab Government should also concentrate on setting up similar academies at Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Amritsar.

Harcharan said in their village, boys start playing at the age of 5-6, as this is when they actually learn the fundamentals of training in football. He said the boys recently watched the Euro 2000 football matches.

Harcharan said Lt-Gen JFR Jacob (retd.), Governor, Punjab, had taken a lot of interest at Goa during his tenure there and we expect that he will do something like in Chandigarh and at other places of Punjab.

Karate body: Ravinder Talwar of Chandigarh was today unanimously re-elected the president of the Sports Karate Federation of India (SKFI). Ashwani Kumar of Chandigarh was elected the general secretary. The meeting also decided to conduct Junior National championship in this event in Gujarat in December, while Sub Junior national meet will be held in Haryana in November this year. The meeting was attended by 16 members units.

Table tennis tournament: The Bhawan Hawks table tennis tournament will be held at the Sector 23 TT hall from July 14 to 16 in various events for both boys and girls. The entries close on July 11.

ADMINISTRATION

HSSC members, chief resign
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 10 — The six members of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and its Chairman today resigned following the state government’s decision to form a collegium for the selection of the Chairman and the members of the HSSC.

Official sources said the state government had accepted the resignations of Mr Rao Man Singh, Chairman, and Mr Amir Chand Chawla, Mr Jai Prakash Kamboj, Mr Ved Pal Singh Dhillon, Mr Satbir Singh Bhankur, Mr Laxman Mirdha and Mr Suresh Sharma, members of the HSSC.

Earlier, the Haryana Cabinet, at its meeting held on last July 2, had decided to form a three member collegium with a representative each from the political executive, the administration and the judiciary. This decision was taken following a commitment made by the Advocate-General before the high court on behalf of the government in the Manmohan Singh Chaudhary versus State of Haryana case stating that the entire issue relating to the appointment of the Chairman and members of the commission and their conditions of service would be got examined by a high-powered committee.

Mr Dhirpal Singh, Minister of Town and Country Planning, the Chief Secretary and Legal Remembrancer have been decided to be the members of the collegium, sources said.

Water leakage problem
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, July 10 — The Sector 70 Social and Welfare Association has complained to the Additional Chief Administrator of PUDA that a water supply line near Flat no 2653- A in the sector had been leaking for the past several days. They lamented that complaints to the officials concerned had failed to yield any result.