The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

54,488 children given polio drops
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 14
As many as 54,488 children were administered polio drops in various parts of the district on the sub-national round of the Pulse Polio immunisation campaign today.

The health authorities said the immunisation drive drew a much better response than during the last round, when as many as 52,145 children were administered the drops on July 1. Other than the Civil Surgeon, Mr Satbir Chaudhary, other officers of the administration, including the Deputy Commissioner, Ms Satwanti Ahlawat, visited different places in the district to oversee the immunisation programme. Ms Ahlawat inaugurated today’s drive by administering polio drops to a child at Pinjore.

Giving details, a spokesman of the Health Department said 3,218 children in the urban areas of Kalka, 6,007 children in the rural areas of Kalka, 2,406 in the urban areas Pinjore, 2,652 in the rural areas of Pinjore, 15,443 in Panchkula, 8,507 in Old Panchkula, 1,900 in Morni, 3,634 in Raipur Rani, 3,286 in Barwala, 2,965 in Hangola and 4,470 in Kot were administered polio drops.

All children between the age of 0 to 5 years in the district were administered the drops in 307 booths set up all over the district. Ten mobile teams were also functional to cover children in this age group. The polio drops were administered from 8 am to 4 pm bus stands and railway stations were also covered. Around 1,232 workers, including health workers, ICDS workers, teachers, NSS workers and 54 supervisors from the Health Department were deployed for effective implementation of this programme. A number of government vehicles were also requisitioned for the campaign.

Medical camp
Our Correspondent

Patients being registered at a medical camp organised by the Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik at Kajheri village on Sunday.

Chandigarh, September 14
The Rotary Chandigarh Shivalik distributed medicines worth Rs 25,000 free of cost at its ‘‘multi-speciality’’ medical camp held at Kajheri village here today. Doctors of ophthalmology, gynaecology, dermatology, dental, ENT and paediatrics examined the patients.

The camp was inaugurated by the president of the club, Mr Bachitter Singh. A press note issued by the club claimed that over 1,000 persons benefited from the camp and poor patients were given spectacle frames free of cost.

The doctors who provided their services at the camp included, Dr Kanwarjit Kochhar, Dr S.C. Pandhi, Dr V.S. Sachdev, Dr Indra, Dr Maleeka Sachdev, Dr Gurjit Singh, Dr Kuldip Singh and Dr Raminder Sandhu.

SPORTS

Japneet, Rishab clinch badminton titles
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, September 14
Japneet and Rishab have clinched under-10 girls and boys sections’ titles in the 15th Chandigarh State badminton championships being played here at the badminton hall, Sector 42.

Japneet downed Varinda in straight sets 11-0,11-2 while Rishab defeated Sahil 15-1,15-5.

The other winners in different events in the boys’ section are:

Under-19—Oscar and Narinder.

Under-16(singles)—Nitin, Sunil, Vineet, Oscar and Gurkirandeep.

Under-13(singles)—Rishab, Jaskaran, Tarush, Manish, Tushar, Kartekeya and Aman Sethi.

Girls’ section:

Under-19(singles)—Harleen, Roma, Kanika.

Under-13(singles)—Tanu Priya, Chetna, Aakriti and Gunjan.Doubles(men)—Deepak Sidhu and Ashish Sharma, Tejinder and Pankaj, Akash Sethi and Amit, Gurjeet and Vivek.

Boys’ under-19—Puneet and Narinder, Vineet and Sidharth, Mandeep and Vinay, Vikas Kundu and Oscar Bansal, Robin and Neeraj.

Under-16—Mandeep and Oscar, Vineet and Suneel, Vikas and Munish, Gurkirandeep and Ankur. Under-13—Subhash and Manoj, Tushar and Aman, Kushal and Kapil, Ravinder and Mohit, Abhinav and Kailash, Rishab and Kailash, Rishab and Mohit, Gurvir and Munish.

Veterans’ doubles—Subhash Nagpal and G.S. Sawhney, Ravinder Talwar and Vijay Pundit, Sanjay Judge and Dr Bedi, Ajay and Amit, Mahal Chand and Kanwaljit.

Doubles’(women)—H.Sarda and Isha Sharma.

Girls’ under-13—Aakriti and Chetna, Divya and Loomba, Gunjan and Neha,Tanu and Mahima.

Judo championship

Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, Chandigarh, won the championship in the under-18 boys’ section in the Chandigarh public schools’ judo championship which was held on Sunday at Sanjay Public School.

Earlier, Mr T.R.Sethi, Director of the host school, inaugurated the meet while Ms U.Sethi, Principal, gave away the prizes. Rohit of Sharda Sarvhitkari School, Sector 40, and Amit of Dev Samaj School, Sector 21, won the titles in the below-25 kg and below-30 kg categories, respectively, in the under-14 section.

Other winners are Yoginder, Gagandeep, Manoj, Babru Bhan, Ritu, Neha Garg, Rinchen, Amarinder, Vijay, Ravi, Ganesh, Charanjit, Meharban, Harmanpreet, Ranjana, Sapna, Isha, Komal Saini and Priyanka.

Car rally

The fourth round of the Motorsports Association of India (MAI) Indian national rally championship will be organised from September 19 to 21. Briefing mediapersons this afternoon, Ms Navaz Sandhu, COC, Power MI Challenge, said till now 19 entries had been received for this mega event. She said, prominent rallyists like winner of the FIA Asian Zone rally Championship-2001 Naren Kumar from Coimbatore having 46 points will be driving Honda V -Tee, Karamjeet Singh from Malaysia, former national champion Hari Singh and another champion driver from city Karandip Singh with 26 points, will take part in the rally.

In the 801 CC section, Lohith Urs of Bangalore with 29 points and Rahul Kanthraj of Hosur with 27 points, will vie for top honours. Former champion driver Sameer Thapar of New Delhi and national champion co-driver Gurvinder Singh Mann of Panchkula will drive Maruti Esteem.

Ms Sandhu said 20-year-old Arun Rao from Mangalore who is leading the RSC championship will have to compete with the likes of TV personality and ace driver Rajiv Khanna along with daughter Mega who will make her debut.

ADMINISTRATION

Officials enforce shopping hours
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, September 14
The Punjab Labour Department after more than a year of the expiry of the exemption period has decided to enforce the closing and opening hours for shops in the town.

Shopkeepers have resented the curbs on their business hours. However, if the law in this regard is implemented in letter and spirit then employees of these establishments will not be compelled to put in additional hours at their workplace. The exemption from following fixed working hours was given to shopkeepers by the previous SAD-BJP government from February 5, 2001, to February 5, 2002. After more than 18 months of the expiry of that period department officials were going from market to market telling shopkeepers to close their establishments by 7.45 pm and open these not earlier than 9 am daily. Sunday would be observed as closed day.

According to orders of the Labour Commissioner issued on August 22, the relevant sections of the Punjab Shop and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958, are to be enforced strictly. Violators are liable to face action.

Mr Gurdeep Singh of Sajjan Telematics in Phase III B2 said most customers begin arriving around 6 pm and the closing time of 7.45 pm was too early. Besides, many shops in the town were being kept open on Sundays.

He said about two months ago the police had given directions to the owners of cyber cafes and eating joints to close early in view of the law and order situation. However, shopkeepers had approached the Ropar Deputy Commissioner in this connection and obtained permission to keep these open till midnight.

A shopkeeper in Phase V said the Shop Act had been in existence for a very long time and the exemption period was merely for a year. “How were shops kept open even when there was no exemption period? The solution is simple. Give Rs 50 a month to the Labour Department official concerned and avoid a challan,” he said.