HEALTH

Stress management
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Jan 14 — An upright personality helps in developing a positive mind. The views were expressed by Ms B.K. Asha, National Coordinator (Administrators Wing) of Rajyoga Education and Research Foundation, at a function on stress management organised by the Mohali Industries Association and Inner Wheel club here today.

She said stress was proving to be a major cause of ailments in the society. She suggested different ways of fighting stress.

SPORT

Punjab can learn from Haryana
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Jan 14 — The past year has seen an increase in sport activities in Haryana. Punjab, that once used to be the leading state in sport in India, has now taken a backseat. In Haryana, it is perhaps the political will that has helped sport to grow. It is only in school sport that Punjab is ahead of Haryana.

Past year, the new team of the Haryana Olympic Association led by Mr Abhey Singh Chautala organised events like the Haryana Sports Festival, the Olympic Day, India-Pakistan kabaddi matches and many other sport meets. Only Haryana observed the National Sports Day on August 29 by holding a state-level function at Karnal, while Punjab organised only a minor tournament. The Haryana CM announced that huge cash rewards would be given to the Haryana athletes who won medals in the Sydney Olympics. Karnam Malleswari, whose in-laws are in Yamunanagar, was given Rs 25 lakh for bringing home a bronze medal from Sydney.

Though Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa of Punjab was the Union Sports Minister and President of the Punjab Olympic Association, no significant sport activity was organised in the state in the past year. In comparison, even a small city like Chandigarh produced some good international players and hosted many tournaments.

Then, the Punjab Government kept on delaying the opening of the National Games here. Even the elections to the POA are to be held and no progress has been made in this direction.

Today, a bhoomi pujan was held on the site of Haryana Olympic Bhavan in the Sector 3 sports complex of Panchkula. The bhavan will have all modern sport facilities. In SAS Nagar, the creation of sport infrastructure near the PCA stadium has been delayed due to lack of funds.

However, Punjab did well in school sport and hosted the National School Games. Next week, the Asian School Hockey Meet is to be held in the state. Talent sportsmen of Punjab are migrating to the Railways and Indian Airlines due to lack of job opportunities in the state. On the other hand, Haryana has made an elaborate plan for the year 2000-2001, under which, eight corporations will be asked to adopt one sport each. It plans to provide at least 126 sportspersons with jobs in organisations like the HSIDC, the HFC, Hafed, the HTC, the HVPN, the Haryana police, the Haryana Forest Department and the HRTC.

ADMINISTRATION

Overlapping of works creates problems for PUDA, MC
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Jan 14 — Overlapping of development and maintenance works between the local Municipal Council and the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has led to poor upkeep of green belts in the town. Due to confusion over the possession of green belts, there have been instances where half of the mild steel railings in a green belt have been put up by the council and the other half by PUDA.

The result is that the “beautification” of the green belts was restricted to putting up mild-steel railings and the maintenance work suffered.

An example in this case was a green belt in front of the Phase 7 market. Condemned vehicles of the Punjab Public Works Department have been lying in the green belt for the past over two years, proving to be a distraction for motorists passing by apart from being an eye sore. Officials of the council say that at a meeting with PUDA officials, it had been decided that certain parks would be maintained by the council and the green belts along the roads would be maintained by PUDA.

However, PUDA appears to be least bothered to remove the junk dumped in the green belt even when the Punjab Government has issued instruction to its agencies to beautify the town to attract the information technology (IT) industry.

Shopkeepers of the market lament that the junk had been lying at the site for the past several months. They say the office of the public works department had moved out but the junk had been left behind.

Since then neither the department had bothered to dispose of the vehicles nor PUDA — the agency responsible for developing the green belts — had bothered to get the same removed. In fact, green belts along the road are often used for dumping waste material or for placing of goods by shopkeepers.