HEALTH

100 patients examined at dental camp
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 2
A dental camp was organised by the the NSS unit of Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, in collaboration with Inner Wheel Chandigarh Central at Raipur Kalan village here today.

As many as 100 patients were checked for cavities at the camp by a team of doctors comprising Dr Shail Gupta and Dr Micky Saharan. Of this, 75 patients were suffering from cavities. The doctors prescribed medicines and informed the patients about dental care. Also, the need of balanced food intake was stressed at the camp.

In addition, various competitions, including quiz, singing, dancing, poetry recitation were organised. The winners were given prizes by the NSS programme officers.

Raipur Kalan, having been adopted by the NSS unit five years, is regularly visited by the cadets and all activities are focused on bringing about improvements.

Regular talks on health, cleanliness, environment protection, natural resource conservation, literacy, drug addiction and AIDS are organised from time to time.

A vaccination camp is being organised by the NSS units of the GGS college. Regarding this, a survey was conducted in the village by the volunteers.

Polyclinic for ex-servicemen from Oct 8
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, October 2
A defence veterans’ polyclinic will begin functioning at the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre at Phase VI here from October 8.

The polyclinic, located near Dara Studio, will benefit ex-servicemen and their families living in the town and the nearby areas who had to go to far-away Command Military Hospital, Chandi Mandir, for treatment.

The polyclinic will be managed by ex-servicemen. Retired doctors of the armed forces will attend to the patients. The facilities will include X-ray, ECG, dental care and blood and urine tests.

Several philanthropic persons and societies have donated funds for the cause. With their assistance, computerised equipment has been installed at the polyclinic.

Blood bank to start from Oct 4
Our Correspondent

Kharar, October 2
A blood bank would start functioning at the local Civil Hospital from October 4. This was started by Dr S.S. Dhanoa, SMO, Civil Hospital, here yesterday. He said the bank would be inaugurated by Ms Kusumjit Sidhu, Managing Director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation. He said the Lions Club would also organise a blood donation camp in the hospital. He said the decision had been taken following the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.

SPORTS

Mini-marathon race evokes good response
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, October 2
The mini-marathon race which was organised by the 3 BRD in Chandigarh today evoked good response. It was flagged off by Air Commodore S.B. Prashar, Air officer Commanding, 3 BRD Air Force. A large number of children, Airmen, and officers of different age groups took part.

The results of winners of different age group are: below-10 years: Shubhankar 1, Vipin Rewa 2; above 10 years: boys — Sanjeev Kumar 1, Parveen 2; above 10 years-girls — Manju Hooda 1, Jaya Prabha 2, Deepika 3; women: Devaki 1, Sunita 2, Nirmala Hooda 3; men: below-30 years: LAC Ramanan 1, LAC RK Yadav 2; above 30 years: JWO B Singh 1, Cpl Mohinder Pal 2, Cpl Satish 3.

Later, Ms Santosh Prashar, president AFWWA (Local), gave away prizes.

Tennis meet from Oct 12

Mount Carmel Total Tennis Academy will have a tennis meet for the junior’s section from October 12 to 18. The tournament will be played on the academy premises in Sector 47. The matches will be played in the boys’ section under below-10,14 and 16 categories and in the girl’s section under below-12 and 16 categories. According to Mr Charles Samuel, Principal, Mount Carmel School, there will be special prizes like best up-coming player, youngest player in both boys and girls’ section. Mr L.D. Kapoor, Director-cum-Chief Coach of the academy, said a good response was expected to the championship. Entries close on October 11 at 6 pm.

City boy shines

Manmeet, a student of class IX of DAV Model School, Sector 15, who represented Indian team in the Indo-Nepal Tug of War International Goodwill Meet, has got second place in the sub-junior’s section in 480 kg category, This meet was held recently in Kathmandu. Manmeet was selected by the Tug of War Federation of India. Earlier, Manmeet had represented UT in the National Ball Badminton meet.

Basketball tournament

DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, will cross swords with SD Public School, Sector 32 , in the final to be played tomorrow, in the ongoing Fifth Rao Jai Singh Memorial Basketball tournament here today at New Public School, Sector 18.

In the matches played today, New Public School, Sector 18 beat Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 33 by 71-39 with half time score of 43-30. In other matches of the day, SD Public School, Sector 32 defeated Guru Harkishan Public School, Sector 38 by 48-26 with half time score of 27-11, then DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 overpowered DC Model School, Sector 7, Panchkula, by 35-23 with half time score of 18-15 and Shivalik Public School, Sector 41 defeated St Xavier’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, by 54-31 with half time score of 30-12.

The finals will begin tomorrow at 8.45 am.

PATIALA

Appointed

Dr M.S. Sohal has been appointed as the Head of Punjabi University’s Department of Sports Science, for a period of three years, under the rule of headship by rotation.

Badminton needs a thrust
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, October 2
The recently concluded North Zone Inter-State badminton championship at the Panjab University gymnasium hall involved the participation of top-ranking badminton players from various states. Yet, the meet failed to evoke any interest and enthusiasm to further the cause of this sport in the city. Even experts felt that the overall standard of the game has deteriorated. Similar sentiments were echoed by various former badminton players whom this reporter met during these days.

The meet is held every year to focus on the strength of a team as a whole in four age groups. The practice of having four events has been continuing for several years. Such tournaments do not give much exposure to all players in a team as sometimes, half of the players do not get an opportunity to play. The weak teams are ousted in the opening round and even if a good player has to show its form, he or she does not get the chance to play.

Every year, the Badminton Association of India tells an affiliated unit to host the above event on a rotational basis.

The Chandigarh Badminton Association, which is a small unit as compared to its neighbouring state units like Punjab, Delhi and Haryana, hosted the North Zone meet in 1995, then Junior National badminton in 2000 both at Sector 42 indoor hall. This year, it also staged the North Zone meet at Panjab University indoor hall.

Punjab players did not do well in girls, men and women section and won the Junior boys title. Over the years, it has been seen that the number of players taking part in Punjab is declining.

In Chandigarh, though there are various coaching centres like the PU coaching centre, Sector 42 centre, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23 and Home Science College, Sector 10 centre, but if the strength and participation, is combined, the number is negligible.

We have seen a number of tournaments of different levels in the city held regularly in various disciplines like table tennis, lawn tennis, basketball, many of which were organised by different institutions and clubs. But sadly, in badminton, hardly any tournament other than state championship is being organised.

The badminton experts are of the opinion that the association should throw open the tournaments to various clubs or other institutions willing to host the meets, so that the game can survive.

Surprisingly, Panchkula has a higher number of players as compared to Chandigarh. However, SAS Nagar, with a population of about two lakh, has hardly produced any good badminton player.