SPORTS

CRPF bag three more gold in Police Aquatics
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 23
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) swimmers continued to rule the pool on day two of the 51st All-India Police Aquatic Championship at the Talkatora swimming pool when they lifted three more gold medals to swell their gold tally to six.

Kailash Nath swam to gold in the 200m individual medley with a new meet record time of 2:16.16 secs while the CRPF 4x100m free style relay team also picked up the bronze with a new meet record time of 3:45.51 secs. Deepak Kumar got the third gold for CRPF when he clocked 0:30.42 secs in the 50m breast stroke final. Deepak Kumar of CRPF and Satish Kumar of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) won the silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200m individual medley. In the 4x100m relay, CRPF were followed by Border Security Force and CISF to clinch the silver and bronze, respectively.

In the 50m back stroke, Harinder Singh of BSF claimed the silver and Kehar Singh of CISF the bronze.

Akhilesh Kumar of BSF logged 441.45 points to lift the gold in high board diving. T Siju of CRPF and Gopi Malpeei of CISF annexed the silver and bronze, respectively. Amar Muralidharan had won the 100m butterfly and 100m free style gold for CRPF on Tuesday. Deepak Kumar had accounted for the third gold on the opening day when he emerged first in the 200m breast stroke.

MRF team emerge second in China rally
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 23
Team MRF’s Stuart Warren with Darryl Judd as co-driver emerged third overall and second among Group N cars in the Rally of China, the third leg of the 2002 Asia Pacific Rally Championship, which concluded on Monday. “I am happy with the result, though it hurts that we could not complete a hattrick of titles”, said Warren, who was within striking distance of winning the Group N title, which Italian Nico Caldarola (Giovanni Agnese) won by 9.4 secs.

Karamjit Singh, a Proton Pert, won the overall crown and Group A class for APRC-registered drivers. By garnering maximum points from this round, the Malaysian is virtually assured of retaining the championship title with the Thailand round to spare.

The Group N Championship is still open. But Warren needs to win all three legs as well as the crown at Thailand to bag the championship.

Sonnet, Bright locked in a tie in title match
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 23
Sonnet Club and Bright Club were locked in a tie in the final of the fourth Dr Goswami Girdhari Lal Memorial Cricket Tournament. Sonnet required five runs with three wickets in hand in the last over, but they lost two wickets and managed to score only four runs. Deepak Joon was adjudged the man of the match while Pankaj Sarma got the best batsman award. Chetan Nanda of Sonnet was declared the best bowler while Sumit Narval of Bright was awarded the man of the tournament prize.

ADMINISTRATION

MCD for limited tendering
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has recommended “restricted tendering” when it privatises the collection of toll tax in the Capital.

According to the proposals in a report on toll tax collection, the tender would be given to only those contractors who have at least three years of experience in tax collection. There in lies the catch, as there are no experienced contractors in Delhi who would be eligible for the tender as it would be the first such venture in the Capital. Only in a few states like Himachal Pradesh and Jaipur in Rajasthan where toll tax was being collected by private agencies, opposition member Vijender Kumar Gupta said.

When this issue along with others was raised in the Standing Committee of the corporation by him, a committee was constituted under his chairmanship to discuss the lacunae in the report. Earlier, a sub-committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Atma Ram Gupta, to discuss the privatisation of the toll tax collection, but he was murdered recently.

The opposition member said that in Jaipur, toll tax was being collected by the agency, which had constructed the roads. Its main job was to construct road, not to collect toll tax. Once it had got its cost of road construction, the toll tax collection would be taken over by the state.

However, the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, clarified that in Himachal Pradesh and even in Jaipur, the toll tax was collected by private agencies. The Commissioner said that work of the contractor would be collection of entry tax from all notified vehicles entering the municipal limits of the Capital at Toll Plazas. The rate of entry tax would be prescribed by the corporation for various vehicles. The MCD would provide necessary manpower, infrastructure equipment and security for the smooth operation of traffic during the collection of toll tax.