HEALTH

PGI employees’ memorandum
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 24 — A delegation of the PGI Employees Union led by the newly elected President, Mr Subhash Chander Nirankari, will submit a memorandum in support of their demands to the PGI Director, Dr S.K. Sharma, tomorrow.

Mr Nirankari pointed out that the administration had till date not properly implemented the agreement signed between members of the Joint Action Committee and the management on February 5, 1997. Following an agitation of the union members in support of their demands, the apex body of the institute gave their consent on September 2, 1997, and said that the same would be implemented within the next 21 days. But this had not been done so far.

Mr Nirankari expressed dissatisfaction with the promotion policy for the groups B, C and D employees of the institute. While the doctors got their promotions after three to four years, this was not the case with the other employees. Earlier, about 1,000 employees who had completed eight years of service before December 31, 1984, were given one promotion. But after this all other employees who had much longer service had been waiting for their promotions.

The high-powered committee constituted in 1999 to look into the demand of the employees had also not done anything. A former PGI Director, Dr I.C. Pathak, is the Chairman of this committee.

Mr Nirankari said that if no action was taken on their genuine demands in the next 15 days, they would be forced to resort to an agitation and may even start an indefinite strike.

A copy of the memorandum is also being sent to the Prime Minister and the Union Health Minister.

SPORT

A player, coach and academician
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 24 — It is indeed a matter of honour to learn of a leading national player of volleyball, later a coach and finally an academician of Panjab University, being felicitated at the Bedford Indian Sports Festival in UK recently.

The event has passed silently locally, but the star Indian volleyball player featured in a live interview of the BBC and was also interviewed by a Pakistani channel.

The event has gained repute with the government contributing resources for conduct of the event. The event was the VIIth Saheed Udham Singh Sports Festival at Bedford. Hockey, football, kabaddi and athletics were the main events.

Hockey along featured 14 teams, including the Ramgarhia Hockey Club, Southall, Khalsa Hockey Club, Leamington Spa, Rajasthan Hockey Club, Sikh Union Hockey Club, Essex Hockey Club and British Hockey Club besides others. The netball event in the under-16 category for girls had seven teams while women had four clubs.

The athletics events were held under four categories of under-8, under-12, under-16 and open. Kabaddi featured 19 teams. Another exhaustive list was of football teams.

Balbir Singh, a triple gold medallist for India in hockey, was felicitated last year. The information booklet this year announced to honour Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu, who excelled against teams like the Soviet Union.

Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu following superannuation from his teaching career at the PU, is currently engrossed in an academic journey. He made his debut for Panjab University at the All-India Inter-University Volleyball Tournament in 1955 and represented it till 1959 when he captained the team. The PU won on three occasions. He also played for Punjab till 1961.

Gurbakhsh Sandhu was chosen to represent the country in the USSR in 1960. The same year he was a member of the team against Pakistan and the following year he was chosen for a Japan tour. From 1964 to 1966, Sandhu took charge of the ‘Burevestnik’, Master of Sports Volleyball team in St Petersburg, Russia. At least two members from this place represented the country in 1968 Olympics, which bagged the gold.

Gurbakhsh Sandhu has written four books, two of which Volleyball — basic and Advanced and Psychology in Sports have received national awards in physical education. He has also been formerly nominated to the panel of national coaches in India.

He is also a former chairman of the Department of Physical Education, Panjab University.

Punjab Cricket Club starts with a win
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Sept 24 — Munish Sharma’s 74 runs helped the Punjab Cricket Club to beat the Central Revenue Sports Board XI by 92 runs in the inaugural match of the VIIIth JP Attray Memorial Cricket Tournament held at the PCA Stadium, SAS Nagar today.

Rakesh Jolly, skipper of the CRSB XI, won the toss and opted to field. The Punjab Cricket Club opened with Vikram Rathore and Ravneet Ricky. The hero of their innings was Harminder Jugnu who made 57 runs in just 35 deliveries. He hit six boundaries and two sixes. The PCC scored 259 runs for nine wickets.

In reply the CRSB got early blows with the exit of Padamjit Sehrawat, Rakesh Jolly and Bhupinder Singh Junior with only 24 runs on the board. The CRSB could muster only 167 runs for eight wickets in stipulated 49 overs.

Brief scores: PCC XI — 259 for nine in 50 overs (Munish Sharma 74, Dinesh Mongia 66, Harminder Jugnu 57 n.o., Vikram Rathore 19, Madan Lal 3 for 56).

CRSB XI — 167 for eight in 49 overs (S. Lahiri 71 n.o., Davinder Dahiya 34, Atul Ranade 19, Gagandeep 2 for 12, Navdeep Singh 2 for 21, Sanjay Mahajan 2 for 29).

Shooting championship

Sabeeha Dhillon an International shooter and current junior national champion, stole the show in the Chandigarh Inter-School Shooting Championship which concluded here last evening at Patiali Ki Rao ranges, Sector 25. Sabeeha scored a stupendous 390 out of 400 in Air Rifle (ISSF) junior women while in junior men section it was Yuvraj Singh Gill who scored 204 /400 and attained first place. In Air Rifle ( NR) junior men section, Jatin Kukreja scored 301/400 while in sub-junior men, Dilsher Singh won with 202 /400.

Vandana, Vijay bag singles titles
By Our Sports Reporter

Guru Harkishan Model School, Sector 38, bagged the Inter-School Basketball Tournament which concluded here yesterday. In final they beat St Soldier’s International School, Sector 28. Mr Kewal Singh, Assistant Director of Sports, Panjab University, gave away the prizes.