NEIGHBOURHOOD

DCC vice-president killed in accident
Our Correspondent

Patiala, March 2
“Health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla and health secretary T.R. Sarangal will be shown black flags wherever they go throughout the state because of the anti-doctors attitude adopted by them,” said president of Rural Medical Health Services (RMHS) Dr Aslam Parvez in a press release.

Dr Parvez said a few days back, RMHS representatives catering to doctors working under zila parishads met the health minister and urged her to withdraw the amendment in the PPSC rules where she was trying to bring about a major change in the basic qualification of PCMS doctors recruited through PPSC.

Dr Parvez said rural doctors were feeling cheated due to the discriminatory behaviour of the state government. He termed as immature, the statement of the health minister in which she claimed that PPSC would be recruiting 147 medical specialists with basic qualification of MD and MS while MBBS doctors would be given contractual jobs in the health department.

He demanded that entry level for PCMS doctors should remain MBBS as earlier and only MBBS doctors should be recruited through PPSC. He further demanded that rural medical officers be regularised as soon as possible as Himachal government had done by regularising 500 contractual doctors by passing a single ordinance and referring a list to Himachal Public Service Commission last year.

Patiala, March 2
Punjabi University has gone hi-tech with its decision to install 48 close-circuit interactive television sets to monitor the working of its Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Main Library. The entire cost of Rs 3.74 lakh has been funded by the UGC.

Another 32 cameras will be installed in the Dr Ganda Singh Punjabi Reference Library in March.

The UGC has already extended a grant of Rs 3,20,000 for this purpose.

Inaugurating the CCTV system here recently, vice-chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh said the entire record of the library, including catalogues, old newspapers, journals and periodicals would be digitised by June.

He also directed librarian Dr Saroj Bala that efforts should be made to make every information available on-line to the users. “The library staff should also be properly trained to ensure that the students and faculty members do not face any difficulty in using the library,” the VC added.

Dr Bala said the instances of theft and tearing of pages from books had considerably reduced since the installation of CCTVs. These CCTVs will also help in keeping a close watch on the functioning of the library staff.

Responsible for installing the CCTVs, director of university's computer center Dr Kanwaljit Singh said three screens had been installed to monitor every movement of the library staff and the visitors.

Patiala, March 2
A fine all-round performance by Ravinder Singh Monto (25, two for 15) enabled Black XI beat Rickey XI by six wickets in Calibre Plaza tournament’s final match, which concluded at the local Government Multi Purpose School, here today.

Scores: Rickey XI: 112 all out (Ravinder Singh Monto 25, Binder Singh six for 16. Black XI: 113 for four (Bobby Kumar 38, Amarinder Singh 18, Ravinder Monto two for 15).

The prizes were distributed by the Patiala Mayor Ajit Pal Singh Kohli, to Kulwinder Singh (man of the series) and Binder Singh (man of the match). The Mayor also gave a prize of Rs 2,100 to the winning team.

Patiala, March 2
Sports has earned name and fame to many. Names like Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathan Anand and Rahul Dravid are known to all. Their faces are known and their skills, appreciated.

But there are others like Charanjit Kaur. Sports has not been able to earn even a decent living for her. Her name does not make you remember any great moment, her face triggers no memory and her prowess remains unknown.

The polio inflicted 25-year-old shuttler bagged a gold medal in the doubles’ event at the world badminton championship for physically handicapped held at Bangkok, last year. The only problem was that people never realised the gravity of Charanjit's accomplishment.

Before the Bangkok bonanza, Charanjit, who had been crippled ever since she was three, laid her hands on the silver medal in the women's singles’ event in the sixth national badminton championship for the physically challenged held at Bangalore. Charanjit, a computer savvy, is now running from pillar to post to get a fairly decent job.

She has met several politicians but apart from giving mere assurances they have not done much for the physically challenged girl. "These politicians can never understand what winning a gold medal in a world championship means," rues Charanjit.

Charanjit had nurtured hopes that with the private sector looking up she could earn a decent living. But visits to the offices of businessmen and industrialists left her drained out, as she got no positive response. Till yet adversity has been Charanjit's only ally. She also knows that misfortune of the soul cultivates strength. For her all is not lost.

The young shuttler, who practices for nearly four hours daily, surprisingly sans a coach because the Punjab Sports Department has failed to post one there, still has faith in the system. Yesterday she met the deputy commissioner D.S. Grewal, who like many others, also turned her away with a mere promise to look into her case.

Chandigarh, March 2
“If India wants to excel in sports then policies related to sports must be based on the bottom of the pyramid”, said Prof Avinash Sidhu, former captain of the Indian women hockey and volleyball teams, on the concluding day of the national seminar on ‘Sports, exercise, health connections’ at Panjab University, here today.

Emphasising on quality physical education at all levels, Sidhu said, “The physical education teachers should be trained by training institutes in the country. Research in the area of physical education and sports needs to be strengthened.”

Dr G.S. Brar presented a report highlighting the discussions held during the seminar. Four resolutions were formulated and unanimously passed in direction to promote sports and fitness programmes at the grass root level.

The delegates also sought human resource development through physical activity and world peace through sports.

Prof. R.C. Sobti, vice-chancellor, who presided over the proceedings yesterday, announced to provide astroturf, synthetic lawn tennis court, air conditioned shooting range for sports persons, on the campus. In the three-day seminar, Prof Ajmer Singh, an Arjuna awardee, Dr S.S. Dhillon, former director sports, Haryana, and Kamaljit Sandhu Kooner, director, training camps, participated.

The seminar was organised by the department of physical education.

Dr Dalwinder Singh proposed a vote of thanks to all the delegates and other individuals who made this seminar a success.

Chandigarh, March 2
Smashing three state records in 56 kg category, Lakhwinder Singh, shone in the 19th Senior Men Chandigarh Weightlifting Championship being held at Weightlifting Hall, Sports Complex, Sector 42, here today.

In the snatch event, he broke Gurjit Singh’s record of 90 kg by lifting 93 kg while in clean and jerk, Lakhwinder again lifted 3 kg more, 123 kg to break Gurjit’s record of 120 kg. In total he lifted 219 kg, to create a new record, smashing Gurjit’s 210 kg.

In 105 kg, Lakhwinder Singh created two new state records, by lifting 152 kg and in total by picking up 332 kg. The previous records were in the name of Manjit Singh (137.5 kg in smash and 322.5 kg in total).

The other results: 62 kgs: 1 Baljinder Singh, 2 Pardep Singh, 3 Jarnail Singh; 69 kgs: 1 Gurpreet Singh, 2 Hardeep Singh, 3 Gurjant Singh; 77 kgs: 1 Falbir Singh, 2 Bikram Singh, 3 Manjot Singh; 85 kgs: 1 Kulwinder Singh, 2 Sukhjit Singh, 3 Harjit Singh; 94 kgs: 1 Harminder Singh, 2 Ramandeep Singh, 3 Amanpreet Singh; 105 kgs: 1 Rupinder Singh, 2 Harpreet Singh, 3 Lakhwinder Singh; 105 kgs: 1 Rajesh Batra, 2 Harinder Singh, 3 Gurinder Singh.

Chandigarh, March 2
With his notable unbeaten knock of 64, Deepak Gosai guided Godrej Cricket Club to register seven-wicket victory over Harikirpa XI in the ongoing 2nd Godrej Cricket Cup, at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 32, here today.

Batting first, Harikirpa XI piled up 149 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 25 overs. Ramandeep Singh (50) and Jatin (42 not out) were the main contributors.

Kulwinder Rambo was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of three for 39 runs.

Deepak Gosai displayed fine batting. He was well supported by Narinder Walia and Jai Kapil, who chipped in 33 and 28 runs, respectively.

For Harikirpa, Sandeep scalped two wickets.

In the second match of the day, RCL XI defeated City Cricket Club (CCC) by five wickets.

RCL XI was 175 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Gurdeep Rana emerged top scorer for the team with 50 runs. Kirpal Singh made 32 runs.

For CCC, Kamaljot Singh picked up three for 26.

CCC overhauled the target, losing five wickets in 24.5 overs. Sansar Bali played the key role in the win, scoring valuable 63 runs while another batsman Pawan chipped in 39 runs.

Gurdeep Rana picked up two wickets.

Brief Score

Harikirpa XI: 149 for nine in 25 overs. (Ramandeep Singh 50, Jatin 41 not out, Gurinder 40, Kulwinder Rambo three for 39, Naresh Dhingra two for 18)

Godrej CC: 150 for three in 21.1 overs (Deepak Gosai 64 not out, Narinder Walia 33, Jai Kapil 28, Sandeep two for 29, Suresh one for 23)

RCL XI: 175 for seven in 25 overs (Gurdeep Rana 50, Kirpal Singh 32, Kamaljot Singh three for 26, Pawan one for 29).

CITY CC: 176 for five in 24.5 overs (Sansar Bali 63, Pawan 39, Sanjeev 21, Gurdeep Rana two for 29, Ashok one for 34).

Chandigarh, March 2
The police today arrested a lineman of the UT electricity department on the charges of stealing power for a function in Sector 40 through a kundi connection.

The police said the accused, Prakash Chand, was arrested after a complaint was lodged against him by an executive engineer of the electricity department. It was alleged that Chand had stolen power for his son’s marriage party through a kundi connection.

A case has been registered. The police said the names of some other officials of the department were likely to crop up during investigation.

Meanwhile, the police arrested Naresh Kumar, a shop owner, for stealing electricity at Burail here yesterday.

A raid was conducted by the police and the electricity department on Balmiki Mohalla at Burail village.

The police arrested the accused who runs a karyana store on the charges of stealing electricity.

Power theft was taking place at seven other house.

A case under Section 279, IPC, and the Electricity Act has been registered against eight persons.

Car stolen

The police has registered a case under Section 379, IPC, on the complaint of Pankaj Sharma in which he alleged that someone had stolen his Santro car (CH03-5173) from his house on Friday.

Student booked

The police has arrested a student for allegedly using a forged roll number. According to the police, Baljit Singh Dhindsa, central superintendent, CBSE, lodged a complaint alleging that a student was arrested from Vivek High School, Sector 38, when he was caught using a forged roll number to appear in an examination yesterday. A case under Section 420 of the IPC has been registered.

Laptop stolen

Rajpal of Anandpur Sahib has reported to the police that his laptop was stolen from a bus he was travelling in. He came to know about the theft when he alighted from the bus at the ISBT, Sector 17, last evening. A case has been registered.

Liquor seized

The police yesterday arrested Om Prakash of Sector 32-C from 3 BRD for allegedly carrying liquor illegally. The police seized 24 bottles of countrymade liquor from his possession and registered a case against him.

Chandigarh, March 2
It has taken Abha Dawesar, a US-based writer of Indian origin, little time to get noticed. Her books - three till now - have found wide readership across the USA and Europe and are now making waves in India.

Come to think of it, they were written in less than six years; the first one hitting the stands in 2000 under the celebrated label of Penguin. It was also the year Abha, a former political philosophy student at Harvard, decided to give up her career at a finance company to pursue full-time writing.

That’s what she now does - harnesses memories and moments to create works that appeal to all. Her award-winning book “Babyji” is a case in point.

Story of a 16-year-old girl growing up in New Delhi, it evolves into a universally-relevant work. “All the teenagers I have met have told me that it’s our story. The work has been translated into several foreign languages and I have had many sessions with the readers about it,” says Abha, who’s now writing her fourth book.

She’s visiting Chandigarh these days and will interact with readers at Panjab University’s English department tomorrow.

Her best so far has been “Babyji”, which explores the immediate life of this girl in the backdrop of Mandal days. It’s about her environment, her coming of age and defining her identity.

And then it has the outpourings of violence of Mandal days, which saw “political” violence manifesting in many different ways. Crimes on school campuses increased, disorder prevailed and not everything resulted from Mandalisation, as is believed. In many ways then, the book broke fresh ground.

As Abha says: “I wrote of the memory of those days. The first immolation took place at a place very close to my house. The work is not autobiographical, but it is fed by personal experiences.”

Content, it seems, was never a problem with Abha, who borrows heavily from her space. Her last book, “That Summer in Paris”, for example, is set in the fashion capital of the world, which also produced fine writers.

“For me, Paris culturally has such a rich history, it has produced so many great writers that it made sense to write about them and their works,” says Abha, whose “That Summer…” has writers as principal characters. It’s a slower novel, she says.

“Three of us” was about bisexual relationships and how the characters sort out their messed up love lives. “This one is set in a financial institution. In a way the setting is familiar to me because I used to work for one such institution.” Abha says.

But that doesn’t mean the writer didn’t have trouble selling her stories; she had her share of struggle before Penguin agreed to publish “Three of Us” in 2000 followed by “Babyji” in 2005.

“Publishers are looking for something that sells - a kind of literary equivalent of a TV show. It’s a challenge to get published. Another problem is fewer readers,” says the writer.