HEALTH

Leprosy detection centres
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, December 17
About 29 health centres in the city shall function as specialised centres for diagnosing and treating leprosy cases for two days from tomorrow.

According to a press release issued by Dr Vanita Gupta of the District Leprosy Society, patients, suspecting leprosy, could report at any of the centres for free detection and treatment.

The symptoms of leprosy include pale insensitive skin patches, thickened painful nerves, painful nodules on the body and loss of sensation in hands and feet.

Dr Gupta added that all urban, slums and villages of Chandigarh would be covered by the voluntary reporting centres. The entire area has been divided into six zones. A skin specialist has been assigned to each zone.

SPORTS

Rugby titles for city teams
Our Sports reporter

Chandigarh, December 17
Chandigarh players bagged honours when both their men and women brought the respective titles in the IIIrd National Rugby Football championship which came to a close this evening at Panjab University grounds. The four-day meet was organised by the Haryana Rugby Football Association.

In the men final, Chandigarh prevailed upon Haryana the hosts by 9-2. Kulwinder scored five points while Tejwinder got four points for the winners. In the women final, Chandigarh blanked Uttranchal 4-0 with all the goals scored by Simarn.

Mr J.P. Gautam, Regional Director, Doordarshan Kendra, Chandigarh, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes.

Tennis meet

Panjab University Campus will cross swords with DAV College, Sector 10, in the tomorrow’s final of the Panjab University Inter-College tennis (men) tournament-2002 played here at the PU Campus tennis courts.

In the semi-finals, DAV College, Chandigarh , defeated Punjab Engineering College, Sector12, Chandigarh, 3-0 while DAV College, Chandigarh, whipped GGD SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh 3-0.

Results: semi-finals; DAVC-10 b GGD SD-32 (3-0); singles: Amanjot b Pardeep 6-0, 6-0; Jitin Bishnoi b Kapil Dev 6-1, 6-0; doubles: Izreek and Gurneet b Kapil and Pardeep 6-1, 6-1.

PU campus b PEC-12 (3-0); singles: Sikander Jaitley ( PUC) b Akhil 6-1, 6-1; Sukhad Juneja b Prateek 6-1, 6-3; doubles: Vikas Sharma and Sikandar b Akhil and Prateek 6-1, 6-3.

CC-42 win kho-kho title

Coaching Centre, Sector 42, won the kho-kho title in both boys and girls sections in the Chandigarh Kho-Kho Championship played here today. CC-42 won all its matches played on league basis. The two-day meet was organised by the Chandigarh Kho-Kho Association.

Mountain bike championship

Deepinder Singh, Mukul Mehta and Rahul Anand, all of Tender Heart School, Sector 33, cornered glory in the Chandigarh Mountain Bike Championship which was held recently at Kaimbala village, near the Sukhna. Deepinder, a Class IX student, achieved laurels in below-16 years category by winning time trial cross country as well as mass start trial coss country race. Rahul Anand and Mukul Mehta both of Class VIII bagged honours in below 14 years by securing first and second place in below-14 section.

Badminton team

Santosh Kumar, AAG in the office of AG (A& E), Punjab, will lead the Regional Sports Board, Chandigarh, in the All-India Civil Services Badminton Tournament to be played at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat, from January 6 to 10, 2003.

The team is :Ashish Sharma,Yogesh Chauhan, Amit Sachdeva, Vikas Sharma, Pala Ram, Santosh Kumar (all AG, A&E, Punjab), Sanjay Kumar, K.L. Sethi and Sunil Kumar (Central Excise and Customs, Chandigarh). Ms Bhawna Sharma is the only woman player selected in the team.

Selection trials

The UT Sports Department, Chandigarh Administration, will hold the selection trials in basketball and kho-kho tomorrow at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, and Government Model High School, Sector 42, respectively, at 3 pm.

According to Mr J.P.S. Sidhu, Joint Director, Sports, UT Administration, the above selected players will take part in the National Women Festival to be held at Ambala from January 8 to 11.

Carrom tourney

Bhupendra Rawat won the men singles title in a carrom championship organised by the Yuva Jagriti Club, Chandigarh. Bhupendra beat Mittar Pal Sharma 25-19, 25-0. Mitter Pal Sharma and Suren Peter won the men doubles title while Ajay Kukreja and Rajender Sajwan remained the runner-up. In women single final, Geeta defeated Seema Sharma 25-0, 25-12 to clinch the title.

ADMINISTRATION

Rs 12 cr diversion cuts development fund to half
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17
The Finance and Contracts Committee of the Municipal Corporation detected diversion of about Rs 12 crore of funds from the plan head to the non-plan head here today. The diversion had virtually reduced the development fund to half, from Rs 28 crore.

The discussion remained inconclusive, as officials could not provide the committee with the details of this expenditure, shown under the non-plan head, in the “Works” column. The committee told the officials to come up with the details at the next meeting. Details could not be given today, as the Chief Engineer, Mr V. K. Bharadwaj, was not present at the meeting.

One of the committee members, Mr P.C. Sanghi, said the corporation should hire a consultant for advice on reducing the non-plan expenditure. Officials said there had been about Rs 4 crore of diversion of funds each quarter.