The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

PGI director proceeds on leave
Tribune Reporters

Chandigarh, September 24
The Director of PGI, Prof S.K. Sharma, today proceeded on leave till October 15 and Prof R.J. Dash, Head of the Endocrinology Department, PGI, will be asked to take charge. The leave application of Prof Sharma has been accepted, well placed sources in the Union Health Ministry confirmed tonight while informing about the take over by Prof Dash.

Prof Sharma had gone to Delhi yesterday to meet officials of the Health Ministry; however, official sources in Delhi refused to confirm if he had been “asked to proceed on leave”. Prof Sharma could not be contacted at his residence in Chandigarh till late at night for his version on why he had proceeded on leave. His family said he was not in house.

Prof Dash is to retire on September 30. Sources said he was likely to get an extension as an urgent meeting of the Institute Body of the PGI was being convened on September 29 at Delhi, where the issue of granting him an extension was likely to come up. The idea to give an extension to Prof Dash has come about to circumvent the issue of seniority between two other contenders for the post of the Director — Prof Sudha Suri and Prof Sarla Gopalan. The two are fighting it out over seniority in court.

For the meeting on September 29, the Deputy Director Administration, PGI, Mrs Meeta Rajivlochan, has been nominated as Member-Secretary. Usually, the PGI Director is Member Secretary for the meeting of the Institute Body.

Sources pointed out that Prof Dash would not be Member Secretary as his own case was to be taken up at the meeting. As a matter of protocol, the DDA will act as Member Secretary. Old timers at the PGI said in the past 15 years, no meeting of the Institute Body had been convened at such a short notice.

SPORTS

Kinshuk, Sanam register wins in AITA ranking meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, September 24
Fifth seed Kinshuk Sharma and top seed Sanam K. Singh, both from Chandigarh, had no difficulty in ousting their respective opponents, Suyush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh and Ashwani Prakash of Uttar Pradesh, in straight sets to surge ahead in the second round of the under-19 section of the AITA Junior Ranking Tour Tennis Tournament at the Tennis Stadium, Sector 10.

The results: boys (under-18): Sanam K. Singh (Chd) b Ashwani Prakash (UP), 6-2, 6-0; Pritam Singh (Chd) b Deepinder Singh (Chd), 6-2, 6-3; Sanjog Kapoor (Chd) b Gaurav Singh (MP), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3; Gursher Singh Harika (Chd) b Manjeet Singh (Chd), 6-0, 6-3; Arjun Talwar (Chd) b Gurmehar Brar (Chd), 6-1, 6-4; M. Hari Prasath (TN) b Pankaj Gulatia (Dli), 6-3, 6-3; Izreek Singh (Chd) b Jay Vinod (Chd), 6-1, 6-3; Rajkanwar Singh (Chd) b Pravesh Kumar (Pb), 6-1, 6-4; Paras Thakur (Chd) b Rahul Belwal (Dli), 6-0, 0-6, 7-6(5); Kinshuk Sharma (Chd) b Suyush Sharma (MP), 6-2, 6-1; B. Navameeth Kannan (TN) b Yogesh Phogat (Hry), 6-3, 6-1; Hazary Javed Akbar (Pb) b Kuldeep Chug (Pb), 6-4, 7-5; Navinder Pal Singh (Chd) b Rohit Chaudhary (Rah), 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-4; Nakul Badopalia (Dli) b Arcopravo Rakshit (WB), 7-5, 6-4; Jatinder Mehlda (Dli) b Harkamal Singh (Chd), 6-1, 6-2; Vijayant Malik (Chd) b Karan Sidhu (Pb), 6-3, 6-1.

Girls, under-18 (first round): Jugwinder Kaur (Pb) b Amrita Mukerjee (WB), 6-3, 6-3; Sonia Sharma (Chd) b Jaanesh M. Kaur (Chd), 6-1, 7-5; Anushka Kapoor (Dli) b Tanya Kapoor (Dli), 6-3, 6-3; Navjot Saini (Pb) b Rakshita (Chd), 6-0, 6-0; Chandni Thakur (Chd) b Vrinda Kapoor (Chd), 6-2, 6-3; Alipt Sandhu (Chd) b Kriti Puri (Chd), 6-1, 6-0; Ankita Singh (Chd) b Rachna Sethia (WB), 6-0, 6-2.

Boys, under-14 (first round): Ashwani Kumar Thapar (Chd) b Ranveer Srivastva (WB), 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(4); Navinder Pal Singh (Chd) b Gurinder Singh (Chd), 6-2, 6-2; Uday Karan Singh Puniha (Chd) b Yuvresh Bansal (Chd), 6-1, 6-3; Mandeep Yadav (Chd) b Siddharth Singh Baidwan (Chd), 6-2, 6-3; Dushyant Verma (Dli) b Anant Vidur Puri (Chd), 6-3, 6-4; Deepinder Singh (Chd) b Harry Singh Amor (Chd), 6-2, 6-3; Akshat Joshi (Chd) b Mandeep Gill (Chd), 7-5, 6-4; Bharat Bhardwaj (UP) b Amit Chauhan (Chd), 5-7, 6-4, 6-4; Dody Barani Irawan Siregar (Dli) b Amrinder Singh Mann (Chd), 6-0, 6-0; Rahul Jain (Dli) b Nishant Kumar (Chd), 6-0, 6-0; Navdeep Singh Uppal (Chd) b Mandeep Singh (Pb), 6-4, 7-5; Vikas Chauhan (Hry) b Inderjot Singh (Pb), 6-1, 6-0; Shiva Sangwan (Chd) b Jagdeeshan Kumar (Kar), 6-4, 6-0; Shikhar Kapoor (Dli) b Bibaswan Deb (EB), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Digvijay Singh (Chd) b Kunal Raj Barua (Dli), 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2.

Girls, under-14 (first round): Ankita Singh (Chd) b Pallak Grewal (Chd), 6-1, 6-2; Tanya Kapoor (Dli) b Harman Preet Kaur (Chd), 6-0, 6-0; Aarushi Sharma (Dli) b Manya Nagpal (Chd), 6-2, 6-2.

Inter-district cricket

A fine knock of 92 runs by skipper Anupam Gambhir enabled Panchkula in beating Kurukshetra by 87 runs. The team entered the last eight of the Haryana State Inter-District Under-15 Cricket Tournament here today at Panchkula. Now Panchkula will play their quarter-final tie against Rohtak at Rohtak on September 26.

Brief scores: Panchkula: 175 for seven in 35 overs (Anupam Gambhir 92, Amit 16, Girish Sharma 13; Rajiv 2 for 30). Kurukshetra: 89 all out in 24 overs (Sushil 16, Amit 16, Jimmy 13; Javed Hassan 3 for 15, Vineet Goel 2 for 24).

Nine-ball meet

International player Mukesh Rehani went down fighting to A. Elonga by three racks to five in the Third Chaudhary Vishnu Pal Singh Memorial Nine-Ball National Championship played here at the Chandigarh Club.

Rishab Thukral played a fine game to oust M. Ranjith, 5-1, while Anish Ambani defeated Anuj Uppal, 5-4. Gaurav Joshi scored a facile win over Rajesh Kapoor, 5-2.

The main-round matches will begin tomorrow.

The results: Prem Prakash (TN) b Suresh Chaudhary (Chd), 5-2; Sidharth Anand (Del) b Pandya (Rly), 5-2; Amit Yadav (Pb) b Rahul Arora (Pb), 5-1; J. Dawar (Mah) b N. Prakash (UP), 5-4; G. Patel (Guj) b D. Raj Kumar (Kar), 5-4; Vishavnath (Kar) b Karan Sarda (Mah), 5-1; Jaswinder Singh (Raj) b Deepak Sikri (UP), 5-2; Bhupinder Singh (Del) b Suraj Monga, 5-0; I.S. Malik (UP) b Mukesh Chandra (UP), 5-2; Achint Verma (Pb) b Bala (TN), 5-2; VarunTaneja (Rly) b Pankaj Gulati (Chd), 5-1. Venkateshan (AP) b Sunil Kashyap (Kar), 5-2; Aditya Shah (Mah) b Vijay Prasad (Kar), 5-1; K Ranjan (TN) b A.S. Rao, 5-4; M. Srivastav (Har) b S. Mahesh (TN), 5-2; Praveen Duggal (Chd) b J. Varun Kumar (TN), 5-4; Harpreet Singh (HP) b Ishwar Nathani (WB), 5-3; Amit Khan Sahib (Del) b A. Joshi (Chd), 5-1; K. Naveen (Kar) b Kamaldeep (Del), 5-4; Manish Behl (UP) b Ayush (Pb), 5-4; Lucky Vatani (AP) b Wasim Ahmed (TN) ,5-4; Sajjan (Kar) b R. Loganathan (TN), 5-3; Nishant Azad (J&K) b Ajay Singla (Chd), 5-4; Ajay Rehani (Del) b Prakash Soni, 5-2.

Table tennis

Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 41, proved its supremacy by winning the Under-17 title in the UT Inter-School Table Tennis Tournament being played here in the Sector 23 TT hall. In the final, they defeated AKSIPS-41, 3-0. Gurpreet Singh beat Sumit Kumar, 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, to win the first singles, followed by Amanpreet Singh, who got the better of Vipin, 10-12,11-6,11-7,11-8. The third and final singles tie went in favour of Himanshu Sharma who outplayed Deepak, 11-8,11-7,11-9. Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, bagged the third place when they overpowered MDAV School, Sector 22, 3-1.

In the boys under-19 matches, Bhawan Vidyalya, Sector 27, GMSSS, Sector 35, AKSIPS, Sector 41, and Shishu Niketan School, Sector 22, made it to the last four of the event.

Volleyball tourney

The Chandigarh State Sub-Junior Volleyball Championship for boys and girls will be held on September 27 and 28 in the Sports Complex, Sector 7. Earlier, the meet was to be held in Shivalik Public school, Sector 41, but as the ground was not ready, the Chandigarh Volleyball Association took the decision to shift the venue.

Admn hands over ‘wish list’ to BCCI
Abhijit Chatterjee
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24
The Chandigarh Administration has handed over a nearly Rs 2 crore “wish List” to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). This ‘list’ has been prepared after consultations with all concerned in Chandigarh and has been handed over to the apex body under the BCCI’s plan to develop the game in neglected areas to spot fresh talent.

As and when the money is released, the Chandigarh Administration plans to buy bowling machines, covers and ground equipment, including light and heavy rollers, for the existing centres at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium and the Sector 8 DAV Senior Secondary School.

Also, the administration is planning to establish new cricket centres at the Punjab Engineering College, Sector 12, DAV College in Sector 10 and certain model schools, both in the northern sectors as well as in the southern sectors. These centres would have turf wickets and basic equipment (again to be funded by the BCCI) so that regular coaching can be conducted at these places.

This plan of action of the administration was discussed threadbare when a two-member team of the BCCI, consisting of the secretary of the Haryana Cricket Association, Mr Ranbir Singh, and the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association, Mr M.P. Pandove, held a detailed meeting with senior functionaries of the administration last month. Subsequently, the “wish list” was prepared. However, it is not known how much the BCCI will actually give to the Chandigarh Administration and when. Meanwhile, it is learnt that two of the cricket associations functioning in Chandigarh and affiliated with the Punjab Cricket Association and the Haryana Cricket Association have agreed to merge without any precondition and form an unified body so that Chandigarh’s case for direct affiliation with the BCCI can be pursued with vigour. This issue has been hanging fire for more than a decade.

The stumbling block to this move is the stand taken by the third cricket body operating in Chandigarh — the UT Cricket Association — which claims to be the only body which should get direct affiliation with the BCCI. Senior functionaries of this association say that the two other bodies should merge with this association and should permit this association to continue its fight for direct affiliation with the BCCI.