PUBLIC PLACES
A miasma of ill-health surrounds 
government hospitals
Tribune News Service

Sonepat, March 27
Representatives of various political parties, social and voluntary organisations as well as trade unions today expressed grave concern over the inefficient and unsatisfactory working of the Civil Surgeon’s Office and urged the state government to order a vigilance probe.

In a joint memorandum sent to the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, a copy of which was released to the press here, they also demanded immediate transfer of the Civil Surgeon and other staff as this would ensure an independent and impartial probe into the misdeeds of the officials responsible for poor health services in this district.

The memorandum alleged that almost all government hospitals, dispensaries, community health centres and primary health centres were overcrowded, ill-equipped and understaffed. The insufficient stocks of vital drugs and other essential articles of everyday use tell a sorry tale. The health institutions have remained unhealthy. Stinking surroundings are a common feature. The non-availability of medicines and skeletal services of doctors only add to the misery of the patients whose maladies become worse instead of getting cured in this stifling atmosphere, it added.

The memorandum also highlighted the details of the medicines, injections and other life-saving drugs which have been in short supply for the past few months. It alleged the Civil Surgeon had failed to ensure the regular supply of these medicines, injections and the life-saving drugs in spite of the requests made by the medical superintendent of the civil hospital and other heads of health institutions in the district. This, the memorandum further alleged, has resulted in the deterioration of the health services in the district. Patients were being forced to visit private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics for treatment.

The Civil Hospital in this city is in a bad shape as corruption, inefficiency and indiscipline have crippled it. The new building of this hospital with a capacity of 100 beds was inaugurated in October 1989 by then Chief Minister Devi Lal. Now, it has developed many cracks and is in a pitiable condition.

Dogs, donkeys and stray cattle freely move about in the corridors of the hospital. The wards and bathrooms stink. The rooms and corridors are poorly lit. The floor is littered with cotton swabs and bandages stained with blood and pus. Swarms of flies feast on them.

The bed sheets are dirty. There are no proper arrangements for boiling syringes or other equipment.

Those patients who are rushed to the emergency ward have to buy bandages, cotton wool, syringes, bottles of glucose and life saving drugs from the market. The duty doctors are also in the habit of referring almost all cases either to Delhi or the PGI at Rohtak for further treatment after giving first aid to patients.

The posts of doctor have been lying vacant for the past few years. The hospitals doctors oblige only officers and influential persons as well as the political bosses and their relatives and friends.

Many patients alleged laboratory tests done in the civil hospital are not considered reliable. The patients are advised to have their blood and urine tested at private laboratories. The hospital ambulances are being misused. The patients talk about a racket involving medical officers and chemists. There are allegations that the doctors prescribe only such medicines as are available with chemists favoured by them.

SPORTS

Top teams for Davinder Cricket
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
Top club teams will participate in the 12th All-India Davinder Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament for the Tara Devi Mathur Trophy, to be held from March 29 to April 6. Davinder Singh was a promising cricketer of Delhi who died in the 1984 riots.

Organising secretary Rakesh Mathur said defending champions Sonnet, runners-up R R Gymkhana Club, Rajdhani Sports, South Delhi Colts, Haridwar Club (Uttaranchal), Aravalli Club, Udaipur, Central Warehousing Corporation,

Goswami Ganesh Dutt Club, Indian Airlines, Inborn Club, Pelican Club, Bright Club, K N Colts, Collage Group, Lal Bahadur Shastri Club and Subhania Club. Many leading national and international players are expected to participate in the tournament.

Delhi and District Cricket Association sports secretary Sunil Dev will inaugurate the tournament at the Central Secretariat ground, Vinay Marg on March 29. K N Colts will take on Collage Group in the opening match.

The matches will be played at the Harbaksh Singh Stadium, Delhi Cantt, Central Secretariat ground I and II, Vinay Marg, Roshanara Club ground and Kalindi College ground.

Zaw Moe accepts challenge, leads in Indian Open
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
Indian ace Jyoti Randhawa carded a six-under 66, to trail by three as Asia’s top golfers shot low opening rounds on the opening day of the $300,000 Royal Challenge Indian Open Golf, which began at the Delhi Golf Course on Thursday.

Zaw Moe displayed some excellent golf as he chipped in on the final hole to break the course record and card a nine-under, 63 to lead one of the strongest field’s ever to participate in the Indian Open, after the first round. Canadian Remi Bouchard, who won the Indian Open in ‘89, Arjun Singh and Rohtas Singh carded the previous course record, an eight-under-par 64. “I am happy with my performance today and will just go out and play the way that I played today,” said Zaw Moe after completing his round.

Rick Gibson, who finished second at the Indian Open last year, carded a seven-under, 65. Teeing off from the tenth tee, Gibson made an eagle on the par-five 14th hole followed by another eagle on the 16th hole where he holed his nine-iron, which bounced once and settled at the bottom of the cup. He then made a hat trick of birdies on the 18th, first and second holes to card a bogey-free, 65.

The 2002 Order of Merit champion, Jyoti Randhawa was three strokes behind, carding a bogey-free, 66. Jyoti made an eagle on the par-five eighth hole and birdies on the third, 11th, 15th and 18th holes to card a six-under-par. “My putting helped to score today as I was not too happy with the way I hit the ball,” said Jyoti.

Pablo del Olmo, Kevin Pomarleau, Kim Felton, Adam Groom and Chris Williams were tied for fourth place at the end of the opening round with identical scores of five-under, 67. Mexican golfer, Pablo carded an eagle on the par-five eight hole, where he hit his four-iron to three-feet, followed by birdies on the first, seventh, 14th and 18th holes and a solitary dropped stroke on the 13th hole. “The course is playing really well and we should see some low scores this week,” he said after his round.

Kevin Pomarleau teed off from the tenth and started the day with a birdie.

He then had back-to-back birdies on the 15th hole, where he chipped in, and the 16th, followed by another on the par-five 18th hole to make the turn at four-under for the day. Birdies on the first and fifth, but a dropped shot on the seventh where he found the bunker with his approach shot and found the ball stuck against the back wall saw him card a five-under. “I missed a lot of short putts, but I am happy with my game as I averaged 28 putts today,” said Pomarleau. Teeing off from the tenth, Chris Williams birdied the 11th, 17th, second, third and eighth holes, to card a bogey-free 67.

Lee Joon Seok shot a four-under, 68 making birdies on the sixth, ninth, 11th, 14th and 18th holes, in spite of a bogey on second hole where he hit his drive in the left rough. He then left his approach shot short of the green and failed to make a chip and putt for his par and tied Jon Levitt, Chris Rogers, Lee Joon Seok and Soe Kyaw Naing and Sanjay Kumar.

Himanshu, Ekta Bhambri get top billing
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
Himanshu P Kala of Central Bank of India and Ekta Bhambri of Delhi University have been given top billing in the men’s singles and women’s singles respectively in Delhi on the basis of the best performance in 60 per cent of the total tournaments conducted in Delhi last year, as per the ranking list released by Delhi Table Tennis Association organising secretary Hukam Singh.

The complete rankings are: Men: Himanshu Kala, Joginder Singh Bisht, Rajiv Ghai, Nitin Mahajan, Ajay Jha, Abhishek Puri, Abhish Kudlan, Harsh Chopra, Rajat Chopra, Mrinal Mondal and Sameer Sawhney. Women: Ekta Bhambri, Esha Bhambri, Pratima Sayal, Diya Jayaram, Neha Aggarwal, Anshu Sharma, Chitra Gupta, Malini, Shikha Sharma, Apna Bhalla.

Boys Singles: Ashish Duklan, Nishank Bajaj, Aditya Puri, Sunal Jain, Varun Jindal, Vishal Aggarwal, Kunal Puri, Karan Arora, Bharat Sharma and Jasdeep Singh. Girls singles: Neha Aggarwal, Esha Bhambri, Shikha Sharma, Joshita Bhushan, V Malini, Apna Bhalla, Esha Monga, Deepshikha Verma, Mrinalini Mondal, Anchal Batra and Mehak Taneja.

Sub-Junior Boys: Varun Jindal, Vishal Aggarwal, Ketan Jain, Jasdeep Singh, Aklesh Sharma, Dhruv Arora, Aman Ahuja, Akash Verma, Dhruv Saxena and Tushar Kalra.

Sub-junior girls: Neha Aggarwal, Shikha Sharma, Esha Monga, Mrinalini Mondal, Sanya Sehgal, Aanchal Batra, Nupur Kumar, Nishtha Garg, Ritika Dhanda, Nikita Kumar. Cadet boys: Dhruv Arora, Aman Ahuja, Sarthak Gandhi, Kartik Kukreja, Piyush Dwivedi, Sajal Khandelwal, Kartik Sharma, Kunal Kathuria, Dipesh Tekchandani and Rajat Kumar.

Cadet girls: Esha Monga, Sanya Sehgal, Nupur Kumar, Ritika Dhanda, Nishtha Garg, Tina Khurana, Nikita Kumar, Surbhi Midha, Priyamwada Mehra and Kanchi Sethi. Kids (boys and girls): Manika Batra, Akash Dewan, Arjun Ravi Shankar and Sudhanshu Grover.

Rakesh Kumar shines
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
A fine all-round performance by Rakesh Kumar, who hit 45 runs with five fours, and then grabbed four wickets for 19 runs, enabled Nirula’s to beat Taj Hotel by five runs with three balls to spare and enter the final of the Inter-Hotel Cricket Tournament at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, New Delhi. Nirula’s will take on the winners of the second semi-final between Radisson Hotel and Dominos in the final.

Scores: Nirula’s: 146 for 7 in 25 overs (Rakesh Kumar 45, 5x4; Raj Kumar Gujrati 29, 1x4, 1x6; Sudhir Kumar 18, Vineet Kumar 16, Vijay Jolly 4 for 14, Nitin 1 for 15, Balram 1 for 19, Hanish Arora 1 for 32).

Taj Hotel: 141 all out in 24.3 overs (Sunil Kumar 50, 5x4; Balram 26, 1x6, 1x4; Hanish Arora 25, 3x4; Rakesh Kumar 4 for 19, Puran 1 for 26, Alam Singh Rawat 2 for 22, Rishi Bhardwaj 2 for 14).

Surender, Brijesh star for G G Dutt
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
A strokeful half century by Surender Dayma and deadly bowling by Brijesh Roy, who claimed 3 for 14, helped Goswami Ganesh Dutt Club defeat Century Club by five wickets in an A-I Division match of the DDCA League at the Kotla I ground on Wednesday. Century Club made 146 all out in 40 overs.

Scores: Century Club: 146 all out in 40 overs (Ram Prakash 31, Rajat Sharma 27, Brijesh Roy 3 for 14, Devender Kumar 2 for 17). G G Dutt: 147 for 5 in 21.3 overs (Surender Dayma 51, Ankit Kalra 42 n o, Rajat Kumar 2 for 27).

Reebok beat Lucent

Reebok defeated Lucent Technologies by 35 runs in their last league match and qualified for the pre-quarter-final of the Reebok Cricket Tournament. Reebok made 157 for 3 in 25 overs.

Scores: Reebok: 175 for 3 in 25 overs (Sonu Mahna 71, 69b, 4x6; Ritesh Saxena 44b, 4x3; Sanjay Arora 27, 25b, 4x4; Satyajit 1 for 17).

Lucent Technologies: 140 for 9 in 22.2 overs (Soumender Kar 51, 38b, 4x2, 6x2; Rishi 26, 27b, 4x2; Vishnu Bhagat 3 for 30, off five overs, which was a hattrick). Vishnu Bhagat was named the man of the match.

GAIL sail into final
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) beat B L Kashyap and Sons by one run in the first semi-final of the 10th Teri Cup Cricket Tournament at the Teri Oval ground.

Scores: B L Kashyap: 179 for 4 in 25 overs (Deep 45, 8x4; Vikram 36, 5x4; Kannav Anand 31, 1x4, 2x6; D B Thakur 2 for 24). GAIL: 182 for 9 in 24.5 overs (Vimal 42, 5x4, 3x6; Prakash 28, Akash 21, 2x4; 1x6; Rekhi 21, 1x4, 1x6; Deep 3 for 22, Atul 2 for 30, Naresh 2 for 18). Vimal was named the man of the match.

Alitalia beat Sundaram

Alitalia beat Royal Sundaram by 25 runs in a quarter-final match of the Turf Corporate Cricket Challenge at the Gargi College ground.

Scores: Alitalia: 186 for 7 in 25 overs (Dheeraj 45, Manish 33, Sunny Grover 4 for 21, Sangram 2 for 47).

Royal Sundaram: 161 for 9 in 25 overs (Manu Mehta 48, Mohsin 24, Abhishek 2 for 32).

Railway cycling championship begins
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 27
The All-India Railway Cycling Championship, organised by the Northern Railway Sports Association, began at the Yamuna Velodrome on Thursday. Northern Railway general manager R K Singh inaugurated the championship. The track events will be held on March 27 and 28, followed by the road events on March 29 and 30. The prize distribution function will be held at the Karnail Singh Stadium on March 30.
Northern Railway General Manager R. K. Singh meeting the Railway cyclists who will be participating in the All-India Railway Cycling Championship to be held at Yamuna Velodrome at the Indira Gandhi Stadium complex on March 27 and 28.

TAX ROW
Nagar nigam may freeze BSNL bank accounts
Our Correspondent

Ghaziabad, March 27
The Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam has adopted a very aggressive posture with regard to non-payment of service tax by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Municipal Commissioner R. B. Maurya has warned that he will have to order freezing of BSNL bank accounts in case it fails to deposit service tax on time.

He said the BSNL owed over Rs 1.25 crore to the nagar nigam as service tax. Besides, the nagar nigam had to recover another Rs 2.80 crore on account of road cutting.

Despite a difference of opinion, nagar nigam officials maintain they will be able to sort out this dispute when they sit down for a meeting. But as far as the dispute on service tax recovery is concerned there appears to be no meeting ground.

According to the Municipal Commissioner, the nagar nigam had frozen the bank accounts of the Telecom Department earlier. But later it was decided at a meeting that BSNL would make the final payment to the nigam by March 25.

Mr Maurya maintains that as the BSNL has not so far cleared their dues, he would have to freeze all their bank accounts with immediate effect.