NEIGHBOURHOOD

Animal sacrifice mark end of Ashtmi fair
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Devotees carrying sacrificial goats and liquor wait for their turn to pay obeisance to Kali Mata in Patiala on Sunday. — Photo by Rajesh Sachar

Ambala, April 13
Ambala SP K.V. Ramana has sent four SHOs to the Police Lines for negligence in duty. Those who were divested from their present charge include in charges of Ambala city, Ambala Sadar, Baldevnagar and Naggal police stations.

The SP took the decision yesterday. Junior police officers and the district intelligence agencies had tightened their lips in this regard.

However, the decision was officially disclosed today when the SP was contacted.

According to information, two days back, the Haryana DGP and senior police officers had crossed through Ambala on their way to Jind to attend a meeting of senior police officers. The concerned police stations were informed in advance.

According to police sources, no proper arrangements of pilot were made for the DGP by the concerned police stations. The matter was also raised in the Jind meeting.

The Ambala SP took a serious note of the matter and took this stern step. The police machinery was busy in the Chief Minister’s visit in Barara today.

Reshuffling in Ambala police stations might take place tomorrow, sources said.

Patiala, April 13
The spotlight was on young Amitoz Singh as hosts Yadvindra Public School (YPS) annexed the title in the Dhruv Pandove memorial six a side inter-public school cricket tournament, which concluded at the YPS grounds, here today.

In the final held today, guided by a cameo knock by Amitoz Singh, YPS, Patiala beat Modern school, New Delhi, by 7 wickets.

Chasing the rival’s target of 52, YPS completed the rituals in just 4 overs with Amitoz Singh scoring an unbeaten 33.

Chandigarh, April 13
His passion for martial arts led him to one of the highest graded martial artists in the world. He has also become two times Taekwondo world champion in 1998 and 2000.

Now, the Indian origin grand master Satwinder Singh Vohra, the UK-based martial artist, is keen to share his experience with the Indian budding sportspersons.

Satwinder, who is known as Tony among friends, initiated his venture by imparting training of core exercises to the budding hockey players of his parent state Punjab.

The professional martial art instructor Tony held the training sessions of exercises at Jalandhar and Blue Cops Cricket Academy at MCM DAV College, Sector 36, where he not only demonstrated the right way of exercises to the budding players but also taught them the exercises which help them in improving flexibility and coordinating abilities and reflexes.

“For every sportsperson, flexibility, strength, total fitness, self-belief, discipline and agility are the core ingredients. The correct and right exercises help the sportspersons to achieve the highest goals,” said Tony, who is a black belt (8-dan) in Taekwondo.

As most of the martial art exercises are yoga-based, they teach sportspersons from where the power should be released to get positive results, said Tony, who has been running a full-time academy at Nottingham (UK).

Fifty-year-old Tony started learning the art at the age of 12 after seeing a Kung-fu programme on television. He won the black belt in just 18 months, which is also a remarkable feat.

Sukhvir Grewal, Punjab hockey coordinator, said Tony would be called here at regular intervals to impart training to the budding players. “We have also asked him to make different sets of exercises for different age group players, which would help in overall physical as well as mental development of the players,” said Grewal.

Chandigarh, April 13
The duo of Sunny Sidhu and Jaskaran from Team Autopace raced to win the top position in the Jeep category in the SJOBA Thunderbolt Sub-Himalayan Rally, concluded at St John's.

Announcing the provisional results, Navpreet Aujla, president, SJOBA, declared Harpreet Bawa and Inderpreet Brar second and Sameer Pande and Mohendra Chouhan third in the category.

In the car category, the team of Anil Wadia and Parminder Thakur won the top honours while Nitin Batra and Neeraj Vohra finished second, Inderdeep Singh and Rahul Garg came third.

Ashish Moudgil emerged winner in the motorcycle category, whereas Nipender Jassy and Sandeep Matharu finished second and third, respectively.

In the Time, Speed, Distance (TSD) category, Dr Pramod and Musa Sherif won the championship. The team consisting Daljit Sahi and Harsimran Dhillon had to satisfy at second spot while, Mukul Minocha and S.K. Minocha finished third.

“These results are provisional and the final results will be declared tomorrow. The prize distribution will be held at 7.30 pm at the CGA tomorrow,” said Aujla.

Chandigarh, April 13
Jatin Sanghwan snapped four for seven enabling St. John's High School beat Beacon's House School, Lahore, by five wickets in a first match of two-match friendly series being played at St. John's High School grounds, Sector 26, here today.

Electing to bat first, Lahore team mustered only 86 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Jatin Sanghwan ripped apart the batting lineup of the visitor’s team with his four-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, for just seven runs.

Vardaan was the other wicket taker, who finished with figure of two for 20. Only Mohammad Ali could put up an average display with 34 runs.

Chasing the meager target, St. John's lost five wickets in the course. The team scored 88 for 5 in just 9.2 overs with Shashya’s unbeaten 23 runs and 15 runs by Shakti Singh. Abdul Basist was the main wicket taker for Lahore with three for 15.

Brief score

Beacon's House: 86 all in 18 overs (Mohammand Ali 34, Jatin 4 for 7, Vardaan 2 for 20); St. John's: 88 for 5 in 9.2 overs (Shashya 23, Shakti 15, Abdul Basist 3 for 15).

Tomorrow, the match will be played at 8 am at the same venue.

Panchkula, April 13
ISLL RD, Mohali, beat ISLL head office team by eight wickets in the match of IVth Anil Jain Memorial Cricket Tournament, being organised by Ind-Swift Group at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, here today.

ISLL made 199 all out in 19 overs with the help of 29 runs by Sachin and 24 runs by Rashpal. Surjeet took three for 21 being followed by Naresh’s 2 for 10.

In reply, Mohali team achieved the target in 17 overs, scoring 122 for 2. Adil was the main scorer as he made 52 runs.

In the other match, head office team defeated ISLL, Parwanoo, by six wickets.

Brief Scores: ISLL head office: 119 all out in 19 overs (Sachin 29, Rashpal 24, Surjeet 3 for 21, Naresh 2 for 10).

ISLL RD Mohali: 122 for 2 in 17 overs (Adil 52, Krishan 16, Sachin 1 for 19, Hardeep 1 for 17).

Parwanoo: 90 all out in 13 overs (Basant Lal 20, Ajay 15, Aman 4 for 21, Vikas 2 for 11).

Head office: 92 for 4 in 14.4 overs (Yudhvir 28 n o, Aman 17 n o, Ajay 1 for 18, Vikas 1 for 19).

Chandigarh, April 13
Bedi Club and Godrej Cricket Club set up a title clash in the IInd Godrej Defender Cup being played at Government Model Senior Secondary School ground, Sector 32, today.

In the first semi-final, Bedi Cricket Club defeated Hari Kirpa XI team by one wicket to enter the finals while Godrej Cricket Club defeated City Cricket Club by 20 runs.

Batting first, Hari Kirpa team was 178 for 7 in 25 overs. Lakhan (34) and Vinod Kumar (24) were the main scorers for the team.

For Bedi team, Dinesh Rana snapped three wickets.

Bedi Club chased the target successfully losing nine wickets in 24.5 overs. Anuj Dahiya steered the team to victory with his unbeaten 57-run knock.

In the second semi-final of the day, Godrej CC put on 154 all out in 24.4 overs whereas City CC were restricted on 134 all out in 24.4 overs.

Brief Score:

Hari Kirpa XI: 178 for 7 in 25 overs (Lakhan 34, Vinod Kumar 24, Dinesh Rana 3 for 32, Deepak 2 for 26); Bedi CC: 179 for 9 in 24.5 overs (Anuj Dahiya 57 n o, Vikram Sharma 33, Narinder 3 for 28, Vimal Tinku 2 for 330).

Godrej CC: 154 all out in 24.4 overs (Charanjeet 42, Pawan Jha 5 for32, Kamal Joshi 3 for 20); City CC: 134 all out in 24.5 overs (Pawan Jha 33, Naresh Dhingra 3 for 25).

The final between Godrej CC and Bedi CC will be held on April 20 at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium.

Chandigarh, April 13
Radha (22), a mother of one, hanged herself here this evening. A resident of Colony Number 5, Radha was said to be in a state of depression.

Meanwhile, Satpal Singh, a 26-year-old man, allegedly set himself on fire at his house in Dadu Majra here this afternoon.

The victim sustained 90 per cent burns and is battling for life at the PGI. According to the police, Satpal was alone in the house at the time of the incident.

According to the police, the accused, a resident of colony number 5, was caught by a resident of Sector 44. The police took the boy into custody and he has been sent to the juvenile home.

Chandigarh, April 13
The rising gold prices have led to a sharp decline in sales, thus leading to dip in gold import in the past one year.

As the gold prices continue to flip-flop between Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 per 10 gram, the gold imports in the country are expected to dip further.

Officials in MMTC informed TNS that the gold imports had declined by 100 tonnes - from 900 tonnes in 2006-07 to 800 tonnes in 2007-08.

This, in spite of the fact that international gold prices are record high and are hovering around $ 960 per ounce.

This is one of the rare occasions when the gold imports have seen such a dip in the largest gold consuming nation in the world.

With the prices unlikely to stabilise in the near future, scrap sales are expected to increase, as an effort to rein in the gold prices in the domestic market.

These scrap sales in the domestic market have curtailed demand for imported gold, creating a gap in domestic and imported prices.

As the gold prices soared on account of the high oil prices and the tumbling the US dollar against other currencies, gold imports were just 10 per cent of the imports in February last year.

Sources said though the rising prices of the yellow metal was turning it into a good investment option, heavy speculative buying by investors had led to a further increase in gold prices.

Talking to TNS here today, Ravi Kishore, general manager (precious metals), MMTC, said while the gold imports had been on the decline, the silver imports had been increasing. Silver prices are now at the highest since November 1980.

“Even though the price of silver have increased from $ 11- 12 per trion in 2006 to $ 18 per trion now, the silver imports have continued to soar. Last year, 3,500 tonnes of silver was imported in the country. With a number of individual investors now buying silver as a safe investment, its demand has continued to increase,” he said.