Medical Council’s move hailed
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 16
The Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association has appreciated the move of the Punjab Medical Council (PMC) to re-enter the names of doctors in the “updated medical register” which were “illegally” erased by the previous Registrar of the council. The newly appointed Registrar has invited applications up to July 11, 2003, from all the doctors registered with the PMC mentioning their registration numbers.

In a press note issued here, Dr Hardeep Singh, state president of the association, said that the previous Registrar had illegally deleted the names of four or five of the total registered doctors from the medical register of the PMC, ignoring the rules. The Punjab Medical Council Registration Act, 1916, empowered the Registrar to delete the names but only with the permission of the Chairman. The deletion of names of 26,500 doctors was illegal as he never prepared cases of such a large number to get permission.

Dr Hardeep Singh added that the PMC official had created many legal complications to such a large number of doctors by unregistering them from medical register. As far as voters’ list was concerned, there was not any rule to prepare the so-called voters’ list as every doctor listed in the updated medical register was guaranteed with the voting right.

The PCMSA president welcomed the efforts of the new Registrar of PMC to re-enter the names of all the 34,000 doctors in the updated medical register.

Punjab eves win medal after 12 years
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 16
Punjab girls clinched a bronze medal in the 54th Junior National Basketball Championship held from June 7 to 14 here at the indoor basketball stadium of the Guru Nanak Sports Complex. It was after a gap of more than a decade that Punjab girls had finished among medal winners. In was in 1981 during the National meet at Madgaon (Goa), Punjab cagers (girls) emerged victorious to bag the title.

During this championship, Punjab girls, in the league phase gave a fine performance to march into the knock-out stage. There also, they excelled and secured a berth in the last four stage and in the semi-final, hosts lost to Chhatisgarh 49-77.

Later in the match for the hard-line cup, Punjab cagers stunned Maharashtra 55-37 to win the bronze medal. This victory is certainly being perceived as a good sign for the revival of basketball (girls) in the region.

Satish Sharma, Deputy Director Sports, Jalandhar Division, and Kanwaljit Singh, SAI coach at Jalandhar who trained these girls for the championship, gave credit to the efforts made by the Punjab Basketball Association (PBA). They singled out Asha of Jalandhar and Paramjit Kaur of Faridkot for their outstanding performance in this meet.

Cricket tourney

Sushyant Kohli (4 for 18), Gagandeep Dhand (3 for 26), Bharat Malhotra (35) and Atul Kohli (34) helped Tony Mahajan XI, Ludhiana, to record second win in a row against Nicks XI, Patiala, in the four-match series of the HDFC Standard Life Insurance Cricket Tournament (u-15) being organised by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association at the Arya College for Boys ground here today.

Nicks XI won the toss and decided to bat first. They were shot out for 124 runs in 39.2 overs. Kuvar and Gunjot who, in the first match yesterday were the main scorers, again made notable contributions, scoring 23 and 21 runs, respectively. For Tony Mahajan XI, Sushyant Kohli and Gagandeep bowled a deadly line and length claiming three and two wickets, respectively.

Tony Mahajan XI surpassed the Nicks XI’s total after losing just four wickets in 33 overs. Bharat Malhotra played a captain’s knock of 35 runs while Atul Kohli contributed 34 runs.

Brief scores: Nicks XI, Patiala- 124 all out in 39.2 overs ( Kuvar 23, Gunjot 21, Mohit 18, Parry 13, Harman 12; Sushynat Kohli 4 for 18, Gagandeep Dhand 3 for 26, Nakul Sharma 1 for 1, Lalit Malhotra 1 for 4 and Vishal Passi 1 for 22); Tony Mahajan XI, Ludhiana- 125 for 4 in 33 overs ( Bharat Malhotra 35, Atul Kohli 34, Vishwajeet 18, Lalit Malhotra 21 n.o; Gaurav 3 for 15 and Jeevan 1 for 8)

The next two matches of the series will be played at Patiala in the last week of this month.