SPORTS

All set for sports meet: Nusrat
Tribune Reporters

Ahmedgarh, August 30
Mr Nusrat Akram Khan, Sports Minister, Punjab, said the state Sports Department was determined to host national sports meet within budgeted sanction of Rs 46 crore, which is much less than one-third of Rs 146 crore spent by Manipur on the same event. Karnataka and Pune had spent Rs 142 and Rs 100 crore on the sports. He appreciated the efforts of the department in handling the meet economically, where as the budget of the Afro-Asian Games has ascended from Rs 33 crore to Rs 133 crore within a span of six months.

The minister said all preparations had been made and 28 events would be held, including tug-of-war and bullock-cart races. The bullock-cart races would be organised within rules suggested by animal welfare associations.

Though the department claims that opening ceremony will be held on November 18 in Ludhiana, but it is apprehended that opening will be delayed by three days. According to sources, the department and the Olympic Association would be in a fix to accommodate more than 600 participants, who might be free from the Afro-Asian Games on November 11. They will be celebrating Divali on November 14 at their homes. Instead of giving air passage facility to the participant, organisers will prefer to delay the opening by another three days.

LUDHIANA

Volleyball tourney
The Punjab State Electricity Board team won the first Inter-Federation Corporation Volleyball Tournament which concluded at the Budhewal Cooperative Sugar Mills ground at Budhewal village, near here, today.

The PRTC team finished second, while Sugarfed, Punjab, team stood third. Teams from Markfed, Punjab, PSEB, Punjab, Mandikaran Board, PRTC and Sugarfed, Punjab, participated in this three-day tournament organised by Sugarfed. Mr Balwinder Singh, Additional Managing Director, Sugarfed, presided over the concluding function and gave away prizes to winners.

Workshop
About 100 coaches in different disciplines drawn from various districts of Punjab participated in a one-day workshop conducted by the Punjab Sports Department in collaboration with the Sports Authority of India here at Guru Nanak Stadium today.

A team of officials from Netaji Subhash Northern Centre, Chandigarh , headed by Mr Sanjeev Sharma, Deputy Director, Administration, conducted the workshop. Other officials present on the occasion were Mr K.D.S. Nagra, coordinator for Punjab, Mr N.S.Jassal , in charge, Monitoring Cell , Ms Sandhya Kaul and Mr Hardip Singh, coaches of the Monitoring Cell and others.

The printed material prepared by the cell was distributed among the coaches.

AMLOH

World champion honoured
The Bassi Sports Club and the Gram Panchayat, Tarkheri, organised a wrestling competition at Tarkheri village, near here, yesterday. Mr Jaswant Singh, sarpanch of the village, welcomed wrestlers and guests. Nearly 40 bouts were held in total. Harvinder Alamgir, the winner, was given a gold ‘karra’ and Rimmi of Malerkotla, the runner-up, was given a gold ring. In the junior category, Kaka Pehlwan of Ghaswal won Rs 1,200.

Parminder Singh Cheema, alias Sonu, World Champion, 2001, was honoured by Mr Karnail Singh Panjoli, president, SHSYAD, and Mr Swaran Singh, president, Bassi Sports Club, on the occasion. The club also presented a memento and Rs 1,100 to Harlle, a coach from Russia. He informed that the Senior World Wrestling Championship would be held from September 24 to 30 in New York. The Indian team would include Kirpa Shankar (54 kg), Sushil (58 kg), Sikander Tommer (63 kg), Ramesh Kumar (69 kg), Surjit Mann (76 kg), Amardeep Sodhi (85 kg), Shamsher Singh (97 kg) and Cheema (130 kg).

Harlle disclosed that Cheema was selected for the championship on August 29 in the presence of officials of the council and the Wrestling Federation of India. He added that the wrestler had defeated Talkhi, a Japanese wrestler, by 8-0 points in just 1.5 minutes at the 9th Juniors World Championship held at Tashkent, from August 9 to 13. He had also defeated Alexander Madarve, who has been World Champion twice, in 5.44 minutes and Ali Noore Arai in 6 minutes in the final match. Harlle said that keeping these achievements of Cheema in view, he was sure that the wrestler would bring laurels to the country.

Mr Paramjit Singh Saholi, a youth leader, and Mr Satwinder Singh Tohra, a member of the District Planning Board, were also present on the occasion.

ADMINISTRATION

Traffic cops sent to Police Lines
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 30
In a surprise move, the district police has sent all head constables posted with the traffic police to the Police Lines. According to sources, the move has been initiated as an image-building exercise as there were a number of complaints of harassment and alleged fleecing by the head constables.

Even at ‘sangat darshan’ programmes ruling party leaders and workers had demanded a check on the corrupt elements in the traffic police.

The SSP has reportedly directed the officials concerned that in future only NGOs will challan traffic violators and no head constable will be authorised to challan any vehicle. Earlier, the Head Constables used to erect nakas at various points of convenience and the constables used to intercept vehicles for checking.

The sources further said the district police chief had taken the action on a complaint by a senior IAS officer of the secretary rank, who also became a victim of a Head Constable at one such naka.

The district traffic police on a average contributes Rs 2.5 lakh as challan money per month to the state treasury whereas people alleged that the actual amount collected by the traffic police was far more.

Pagers for Ludhiana cops
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 30
In a bid to make Ludhiana police more responsive and accessible, the district police administration has decided to provide as many as 600 pagers to non-gazetted ranks. The Ludhiana police will become the first in the country to provide such a facility to the police personnel from September 1, when DGP Sarbjit Singh inaugurates the scheme in the city.

With this move, the trackability problem of the police faced by the officers as well as to the public was expected to diminish to a large extent. The orders also mean that the police has finally managed to convince a private company dealing in communication services to provide service to the police.

Due to the shortage of funds and pending of BSNL telephone bills, several telephones were disconnected or rendered one-way in the past. Facing a serious problem of communication, the police had approached CONNECT and SPICE companies for some kind of lump-sum annual payment for the service. However, the past dubious record of the police had come in the way and the private companies had backed out. Later, the BSNL had agreed to release the connections even though the police had not submitted the bills.

Police sources said with most of the wireless sets were rendered outdated and were failing in sending messages to the lower-rank police personnel, the police had thought of this scheme to keep them in touch. It was also being discussed that the Head Constables might be made investigating officers on the lines of a similar scheme introduced in Patiala.

A police official said the Ludhiana police would be 100 per cent communicable after the introduction of pagers.