The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Committee okays purchases, sans spiral CT scan
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH Aug 22 — The purchase committee of the PGI, has cleared the proposal for procuring equipment, drugs and life support systems worth more than Rs 1 crore for the hospital. However, the four-member committee declined the proposal for the spiral CT scan for the Radiology Department.

The proposal has been dropped because of certain objections by the committee members, which authorities hope will be sorted out soon. However, as per the sources, there are two proposals for the spiral CT scan, which will cost nearly Rs 3 crore. The mass production of the machine has not yet started. This is possibly one of the reasons why the committee members have declined the proposal, considering there is no requirement to clear the project so early.

However, the rate contract of medicines to be procured for the hospital has been cleared. Other equipment include a couple of ventilators for the Anaesthesia Department. Most of the ventilators in the ICU and the Anaesthetic Department are out of order. The patients have been facing a lot of problems because of this.

The purchase committee has approved some spare items for the existing CT scan to ensure that it runs smoothly. Moreover, a nod has also been given for a new shuttle van for the OPD. This van will be used for the transportation of patients from the old hospital building to the new OPD block. The new OPD block is scheduled to be opened for the patients soon.

Other major items include a gamma counter for the Department of Nuclear Medicine. Presently, the department is using the gamma counter in the Department of Experimental Medicines to radio immuno assay the thyroid hormones. With this new addition, the working of the Department of Nuclear Medicine is expected to become more efficient. The department regularly runs RIA tests for thyroid hormones.

The purchase committee today also approved some general items like venetian blinds. The committee has the power to approve of items worth more than Rs 5 lakh. The governing body and the institute body meeting of the PGI is scheduled to be held on August 29 in Delhi.

SPORT

Dubai school to host CBSE badminton
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH Aug 22 — The under-14 National Badminton Championships of schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education will be held in Dubai this year from December 19 to 22, according to the CBSE’s sports calendar for the 2000-2001 session.

Another significant decision revealed by the calendar is that the number of schools in Cluster XI has been raised to 117. This cluster earlier comprised 89 schools in Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Now 28 schools of Punjab and Haryana have been added to it.

Announcing this, Mr Ravinder Talwar, Co-ordinator, Sports, Cluster XI, said that of the 28 schools added to this cluster, 17 were in the Kalka-Panchkula Zone of Haryana and 11 fell in Ropar and Patiala districts of Punjab.

According to Mr Talwar, the Indian High School in Dubai had agreed to host the badminton championships. Boys’ and girls’ teams that qualify from the zonal championships will go to Dubai. All expenses barring air travel will be borne by the host school.

Mr Talwar revealed that this year some new disciplines such as swimming, judo and handball had been included in the under-14 section. In these events, no zonal level competitions will be held and the teams will compete directly in the nationals. The changes made are; athletics and table tennis ( under 14, 16 and 18). swimming, judo, handball and badminton ( under 14), tennis and hockey (under 18). Skating, has been introduced for the first time in these sports, and has been allotted to KB DAV Centenary School, Sector 7.

The 17 schools of Haryana added to Cluster XI are; Panchkula— Hansraj Public School, Sector 6 ; Satluj Public School, Sector 4; St Soldier’s School, Sector 16; CL DAV Senior Public School, Sector 11; DC Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 7; Army Public School, Chandimandir Cantonment; DAV Senior Public School, BCW, Surajpur; Jainendra Public School, Old Panchkula; MRA Modern Public School, Sector 7; DAV English Medium Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 8; Blue Bird school, Sector 16; Sophia

Convent School, Kalka; Alpine Public School, Bharwana-Pinjore; Haryana Model School, Sector 10, Panchkula; Manav Mangal School, Sector 11, Panchkula; Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Sector 15, Panchkula; and Florence Convent School, Sector 6, Panchkula.

The Punjab schools included in the cluster are; Shivalik Public School, Ropar and SAS Nagar; Gian Jyoti Public school, Phase VI, SAS Nagar; Sri Dashmesh Academy, Anandpur Sahib; Swami Ram Tirtha Public School, Phase IV, SAS Nagar; Henderson Jubilee School, Kharar, Patel Public School, Rajpura; Sri Sukhmani International School, Dera Bassi National Public School, Kurali ; Netaji Model School, Bela Road ,Ropar; and Golden Bells Public school, Sohana, SAS Nagar.

Sports activities of this cluster will include kho kho and volleyball at PML SD Public School, Sector 32 (September 1 to 3), football at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 (September 21 to 23), athletics at DAVSS, Sector 8 (September 26 to 28); basketball at New Public School, Sector 18 (September 30 to October 3); and table tennis at NPS-18 (October 13 to 15)

For the north zone meet, the dates finalised are; hockey at Shah Satnam Ji boys School, Sirsa (October 22 to 25), badminton at New Era Public School, Maya Puri, Delhi, (September 30 to October 3); lawn tennis at Modern School, Delhi, (October 1 to 3).

The national level CBSE schools sports meets in various disciplines will be athletics at Chennai (December 20 to 23); TT at Jaipur (December 17 to 20); volleyball at Bhilai (December 11 to14); badminton at Dubai (December 19 to 22); basketball at Bhilai (December 12 to 15); football at Panipat (November 8 to 12); chess at Indore (October 14 to 23); lawn tennis at Vijayawada first week of December); kho-kho at New Delhi (November 23 to 26); Judo at Indore (October 29 to 31); handball at Amravati (October 13 to 15) and roller skating at KB DAV centenary School, Sector 7 Chandigarh (dates to be notified later). The venues and dates of the national meets in swimming and hockey had not yet been be decided , said Mr Talwar.

Steps to improve sports activities
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH Aug 22 — ‘’The overall emphasis to improve sports activities in Haryana will be on four major points — infrastructure development, competition exposure to players, increased co-ordination at school and college level and training to the trainers,” quipped Dr B.K. Sinha, who was recently appointed Director Sports, Haryana. In a brief chat, Dr Sinha hinted at the plan to improve sports in Haryana. Dr Sinha had represented hockey team of Magadh University thrice in inter-varsity tournaments during his hey days. He was also a player of basketball and football and represented his university in these sports. A 1986 batch IPS officer, Dr Sinha (41) who joined as Director Sports and Youth Welfare, Haryana, also remained SP (Security), Deputy Director, Police Training College, Madhuban, Haryana, in addition to other postings.

He said the need of the hour was to create proper infrastructure in Haryana and it could be accelerated by increasing sports activities in the state. The sports to be covered at rural level include wrestling, kabaddi and volleyball.

He said funds for the infrastructure development would be generated from the Government of India as it has number of schemes to help state in this regard.

He said less competition exposure retards the confidence of the players. He said tournaments could be organised in the nearby states and at centres like NIS, Patiala and Delhi at lesser costs. Similarly players from other states could be called at number of towns especially in rural Haryana where the people have the eagerness to watch sports and boost the morale of the players.

His next plan is to tap the talent at one school level and to ensure that it does not go waste due to any reason. Such players will be spotted by the Sports Department that will monitor their performance at every step. Today the schools were the nursery for the grooming of players and unless they were properly catered to or taken care of, the crop will vanish.

Then next step will be to have training for the trainers. Today, the Haryana Sports Department has more than 400 coaches in various sport, they will be updated in the different aspects of their respective sport. The department will try to provide them with all the facilities for increase in their knowledge so that trainees are not deprived of latest amendments happenings in their field.

Dr Sinha, who is also the President of Tennis Ball Cricket Federation of India, has made it mandatory for each district sports officer to be present at centres daily. Now in the morning hours, from 6 to 8 am and in the evening from 4 to 7 p.m., each DSO will have to be present at their coaching centres and from 11 a.m. to 1p.m. in their offices. He said since there was not much work in the offices as such so they will have to spend more time in the fields, which will ultimately help in boosting the morale of the coaches and the trainees. He said Haryana has potential and a concrete planning will help a long way in producing Olympians from the state.

Snooker championship

Deepak Goel, Anil Sharma and Pardeep Kumar made it to the last eight of the open snooker event of the YMCA Open Billiards and Snooker Championship being played here today at the YMCA, Sector 11. Deepak had to fight hard in overcoming a stiff resistance from Rajeev Bhardwaj in five frames. Rajeev captured the first frame at 68-15, second and third were taken by Deepak at 53-30, 36-28. The fourth frame went in favour of Rajeev at 47-36 and one fifth frame was won by Deepak at 67-43 and eventually the match. Anil made the shortwork of Abhinav in three straight frames at 55-18, 57-49, 69-20. Pradeep beat Amit Verma 56-34, 32-44, 55-52. In one of the billiards matches, Manan Nagpal downed B.K. Arora at 290-130.

Inter-school carrom

Mount Carmel School, Sector 46 outplayed Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, by 3-0 in the final of the U.T. Inter-school Carrom Championship played here at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45. In under-17 section, Government Model High School, Sector 44, got the better of Mount Carmel-46 by 2-1 and in under-19 section, S.D. Public School, Sector 44, defeated Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 16 by 3-0.

Results: Under-14 — MC-46 by GMSSS-16 3-0 (Pallavi Piplani b Manpreet Chhabra; Eveleen Sidhu b Harjeet Kaur; Gagandeep Kaur b Anchal Kumar) Under-17 — GMHS-44 b MC-46 2-1 (Jaspreet lost to Narjot; Paramjeet by Birinderjeet, Simran by Stuti Vashisht). Under-19 — SDP-32 b GMSSS-16 3-0 (Manu b Neha; Ami Wig b Dilmeet; Puneet Lamba b Shikha).

DAV-10 win

DAV College, Sector 10, beat AG-Audit (Punjab) by a solitary goal on the opening day of the Chandigarh Football league for Nivia Trophy organised by the Chandigarh Footbal Association at Sector 17 football grounds. The lone goal was scored by Gurminder Singh in the first half of the match.

Nagesh Shines

Nagesh Gupta scored 48 runs and took two wickets for 26 runs to help Pace XI in beating Kalsi Cricket Club by 38 runs in the first Balbir Singh memorial Khalsa cricket tournament at Cricket Stadium, Sector 16. In another match, Panchkula Sports Club beat Prudential CC by wickets.

Brief scores: Pace XI 147 runs for 9 in 25 over (Nagesh 48, Pankaj 23, Goldy 3 for 26, Upender 2 for 11; Kalsi XI 109 all out in 21 overs (Sanjeev 32, Munish 30, Amardeep 3 for 13, Nagesh 2 for 26); Prudential CC 95 all out in 24.1 overs (Vipin 26, Manu 20, Umesh 3 for 9, Kulvinder 2 for 10); Panchkula Sports Club 98 for 3 in 20.1 overs (Kulwinder 40 n.o., Jay Kapil 32 n.o., Mukesh 2 for 18).

Cricket tourney

Fourteen teams will take part in the under-12 inter-school cricket tournament for St Kabir’s Trophy, to be organised by UT Cricket Association at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, Sector 16. According to Mr Rakesh Jolly, Organising Secretary, the participating teams have been divided into two groups.

ADMINISTRATION

MC wins dispute with Excise Dept
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH Aug 22 — The long-standing dispute between the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) and the Excise authorities, involving levy of excise duty amounting to over Rs 1 crore, has finally been settled in favour of the civic body.

According to sources, the Customs, Excise and Gold Control Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi, upheld the appeal of the corporation, yesterday, and waived off the excise duty imposed by the local Excise authorities. With this significant decision, the excise duty will, now, not be levied on the tiles factory of the corporation in Phase I of the Industrial Area here.

It may be recalled that the case goes back to the year 1993 when the Excise Department imposed a penalty of over Rs 36 lakh on the tiles factory, manufacturing tiles, kerbs and channels. These concrete items are used in large quantities for various development works, including along the roads, footpaths and parking areas.

Terming the activities as “commercial”, under the Factories Act, the department had imposed the over Rs 36 lakh penalty, including interest, on the Chandigarh Administration which then managed the tiles factory. Even as years rolled by, the administration transferred the tiles factory to the corporation on June 1,1996, when the civic body was created. The administration and the civic body agreed to equally share the liabilities of the excise duty. The current excise duty liabilities were stated to be over Rs 1 crore.

Subsequently, the administration appealed against the local Excise authorities’ order, contending that manufacturing tiles, kerbs and channels was a process and not a commercial activity. It was also contended that no excise duty was levied when the above items were made at the sites where they were affixed.

Presenting a strong case, the civic body also contended that since it did not further sell items, the excise duty should not be levied. The tribunal accepted the civic body’s viewpoint and waived off the excise duty.

Panel gives estimate of 4.43 cr for pipe network
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH Aug 22 — The water supply and the sewerage disposal committee of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) today recommended an estimate of Rs 4.43 crore for laying pipe network for supplying tertiary treated water for the irrigation of various open spaces in Phase I and II sectors. After approval by the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC), the proposal will go to the House of the corporation for final approval.

Keeping in view the 35 million gallons per day (MGDs) irrigation requirement and present installed capacity of the Sewage Treatment Plant at SAS Nagar to treat the sewage up to tertiary level at 10 MGDs, the committee felt to lay the distribution network for the optimum utilisation of the treated water. The proposed distribution network would meet up to 20 MGDs supply when the existing treatment plant is augmented by another 10 MGDs.

The estimate also envisages the construction of adequate reservoirs for the storage of tertiary treated water. The connections have been proposed to be taken from the existing rising main line for the supply of tertiary treated water. This would give relief to the drinking water supply as the water saved would be utilised for drinking purposes.

The committee recommended to the House to make necessary amendments in the water supply bylaws so as to incorporate a clause for the imposition of Rs 500 on violators.

The committee was informed that there were over 50,000 defective water meters. Of these, 10,000 will be replaced by the civic body and remaining by a private agency. For the replacement of defective meters, the consumer will have to shell out Rs 65, including the restoration and installations charges. Meanwhile, since June this year, 589 defective road gullies have been replaced.