NEIGHBOURHOOD

Ambala Club asked to stop auction
Our Correspondent

Ambala, January 29
Director of urban local bodies R.P. Bhardwaj has directed the Ambala Club to stop the sale or lease process of the municipal council land.

The office-bearers of the club had decided to construct 44 shops and a swimming pool on the club premises. The club had fixed January 30 as the date of auction of the shops’ site.

According to information, the club had planned to enhance its income by leasing out shops on its premises, to finance new projects of the club.

Former secretary of the club Baikunth Nath and a few other members had filed a complaint with the director of urban local bodies in which they said the club could not lease out the site for the shops, as the land belonged to the municipal council.

The director has directed the club to stop the auction of the site till further order.

Ambala, January 29
Around one dozen jhuggis were gutted in a fire near railway station in Ambala city today noon. Most of the male members were away to their jobs when the incident occurred. Clothes and other daily use items were destroyed in the fire.

The fire was however, brought under control after a struggle of three hours by the fire brigade.

An inhabitant informed that the fire started from buses stationed near the jhuggis.

Chairman of the municipal council Harish Sashan and councillor of the area Ajay Saini visited the site. The victims, migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, demanded financial assistance as they claimed to have lost every thing in the fire.

Chandigarh, January 29
Pankaj Kumar defeated Sisir Chilikuri by 6-1, 6-3, in the under-14 boys’ category of the AITA Tennis tournament being played at Lake Club, here today. In the under-14 girls’ category, Likhita Shetty moved ahead by defeated Tatira Bhatt by 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Other results: U-14 (boys): Sunny Dhaiya b Nischay Rawal (7-6, (6) 5-7, 6-3), Dig Vijay Naruka b Sai Reddy(6-2, 6-4), Anikhit Prasad b Manish Drall (7-5, 6-4), Manish Kumar b Arush Sood (6-3, 6-2), Vilash Khate b Naveen Anand (6-1, 6-3), Sushant Mohanti b Hardeep Singh (6-0, 6-0), Kamal Kishore b Udai Mann (6-3, 6-4).

U-14 (Boys’ Pre-quarterfinals): Megha Sherawat b Nehal Sahni (6-1, 6-1), Sabatini Anka b Vibhuti Khullar (6-1, 6-0), Rimpledeep Kaur b Harkirat Bains (6-1, 6-2), Rajbir Kaur b Shivani Manchanda (6-0, 6-3), Simran Sethi b Sonali Bansal (6-1, 6 3), Bhawika Wadhawan b Radhika Krishan (6-4, 6-1), Eetee Mehta b Shreya Malhotra (6-2, 6-3).

U-16 (Boys’ Pre-quarterfinals): Naveen Kumar b Jaspinder Singh (6-1, 6-2), Rishab Dev b Kamal Kishore (4-6, 6-4,6-3), Pankaj Kumar b Raghav Singhal (3-6, 6-3, 6-1), Naveen Shankar b Jaivardhan Gupta (7-5, 6-0), Ajay Yadav b Bavneet Singh (6-1, 6-2), Gurinder Singh b Harinder Singh(6-0, 6-1), Digvijay Naruka b Sajal Choudhary ( 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (3)), Maninder Singh b Jatinder Singh (6-0, 6-0).

U-16 (Girls’ Pre-quarterfinals): Pooja Naryana b Nehal Sahni (6-2, 6-3), Etee Mehta b Sonali Bansal (6-2, 6-1) Harnoor Kaur Mann b Sreya Mlhotra (-1, 6-3) ,Megha Sherawat b Likhita Shety (6-2, 6-2), Jaspreet Kaur b Rajbir Kaur (6-3. 4-6, 6-3), Ravnoor Kaur b Ikttesh Chanhal (7-6 (4) 4-6, 7-5), Sandeep Saran b Prabhamrit Kaur (7-6 (2), 6-4), Baljinder Kaur b Bhavika Nadhanan (6-1,6-0).

Girls’ u-16 doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): Megha Sherawat, Simran Sethi b Ayna Arror, Nikita Deshmukh 6-0, 6-1, Vaibhavi Trivedi, Eetee Mehta b Harkirat Bains, Charvi Saxena 6-2, 6-1, b Prabhamrit Kaur, Harnoor Kaur b Sandeep Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur 6-4, 6-4, Baljinder Kaur, Sabatini Ankaraju w/o Shubh Gulati, Nayna Goswami, Neehal Sahni, Likhita Shetty w/o Neyati Aggarwal, Nikita Deshmukh.

Boys’ u-16 (Doubles pre-quarterfinals): Bhavtaran Singh, Aviraj Kamboj b Jivitesh Kang, Jaivardhan Gupta (1-6, 6-4, 13-11), Harinder Singh, Chinmay Handa b Taranbir Singh, Ramandeep Kushik.

Boys’ u-16 (Doubles quarter-finals): Navneet Kumar, Naveen Shankar b Harry Jindal, Ankit Goyal (6-1, 6-1), Ajay Yadav, Raghav Singhal b Ashutosh Rana, Saransh Bhatia (6-1,6-0).

Boys’ under-14 (Doubles pre-quarterfinals): Dheeranush Bhatti, Ranjeet Singh b Pranav, Arush, Shashank, Manish Drall b Chin May.

Mohali, January 29
Dr I.T. Institute of Management and Technology, near Jalalpur, Banur, celebrated its first annual sports meet. The chief guest Prof. Ajmer Singh, Arjuna awardee and former director sports, and former vice-chancellor of Lakshmi Bai National Institute of Physical Education, Gawalior, and Prof. N.S. Maan former chairman Physical Education Department, Panjab University, hoisted the institute flag and declared the meet open. The meet started with traditional lamp lighting followed by march past by different classes.

Major Singh Gill from Australia and Vic Narang CEO, Mobi-tel USA and M.K. Mahajan, chairman of Dr. I.T. Planet, gave prizes to winners of different events. Deepti Mahajan, CEO of the institute gave Best Athlete Award to Cherry Sharma (BCA) and Jasmeen Goria (MBA) from girls’ group, Taranjeet (BBA) and Chandresh (MBA) from boys’ group.

Chandigarh, January 29
The region is all set to have its first residential therapeutic centre. Come February 2 and actress Hema Malini will dance in the support of Athma Shakti Vidyalaya (ASV), the Bangalore-based residential therapeutic community, which is conceptualising a centre in Chandigarh.

Over the years, the community has used its unique therapy to treat national and international patients of serious psychological disorders, including schizophrenia.

The Chandigarh centre of ASV is a reaction to the growing need for care centres for the mentally ill who find no place in the hospitals meant for them. The idea is to replicate established community based methodology to more areas and bring about greater awareness of the existing facilities to the public at large.

The project is rooted in the findings of the Global Burden of Disease Study recently commissioned jointly by the WHO and Harvard University. The study predicts that by 2020, mental illness will be the leading cause of disability in India. This illness will include disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.

As such, about 2 to 5 per cent of India’s population suffers some form of mental or behavioural disorder. Around 1 per cent has a serious form of mental disorder requiring urgent care at any one point of time. No less than 10 to 15 per cent of those attending general health facilities have a common mental disorder. This amounts to a staggering 20 million out of a population of 1 billion. Ironically, India has only 4,000 psychiatrists to cater to the needs of 20 million mentally ill.

It is this segment that the Vidyalaya seeks to cater. The community’s holistic approach to treatment includes psychotropic medication, individual and group psychotherapy, yoga therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, transactional analysis, gestalt therapy, regressive therapy, cognitive retraining, psycho-physical exercises, music/art/ dance movement therapy.

That these therapies are succeeding is clear from ASV’s success rate of 67 per cent of the total population targeted; 90 per cent success rate with schizophrenia (56 per cent of the total persons targeted), 33 per cent success rate with the rest; 44 per cent with borderline personality (of which 11 per cent of the total population were severe bipolars)

Specifically speaking, the community provides necessary environment within which the individual can learn through practical experience how to develop the skills needed to live a responsible life. Given the severity of mental disorders people face, it is not possible to provide for an effective learning experience at home, hospital or the workplace. Also, there is an urgent demand from the community at large to bridge the gap between the mental hospitals and the half way homes. ASV’s Chandigarh chapter will bridge this gap in the region.

Chandigarh, January 29
The Laghu Udyog Bharti (LUB) has urged the Administrator, Chandigarh, to make the conversion policy a perpetual policy, and not a time-bound policy. They have also requested that the conversion fee should take into account the cost of land.

In a memorandum submitted to the Adminstrator, LUB has urged that the conversion policy be extended beyond March 2008. “With the conversion policy ending in March, the small and medium industry will not be able to avail this as it will take years of planning and collecting the money needed for getting the change in land use,” said P D Mongia, president of LUB.

He said the conversion formula did not take into account the price of industrial land. The formula was based on price of auctioned commercial property, which was detrimental to the interests of the small scale units, he added.

Chandigarh, January 29
A delegation of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal(CBM), headed by its president Charanjiv Singh, today called on Sanjay Kumar, finance secretary, to apprise him of pending issues concerning traders of the city.

According to a press note issued here today, simplification of the need-based changes in old building byelaws, balanced rent act, protection of traditional retailers from the adverse impact of entry of the big corporates in the retail sector, beautification and upgradation of sector markets, increase in sanctioned load of electricity to the shops and representation to the CBM in the advisory committees of administration were the issues discussed at the meeting.

Diwakar Sahoonja, official spokesperson, B. K. Sood, adviser, and Anil Vohra, general secretary(administration), comprised the delegation. The finance secretary assured the delegation that its genuine demands would be considered.