NEIGHBOURHOOD

Himanshu’s ton puts Patiala on top
Our Correspondent

Ambala, August 4
Residents of village Gaursyan (Naggal) will never forget August 3 for a long time to come. The village lost two of its boys to the stampede that occurred at Naina Devi temple yesterday morning.

Grieving family members of seven Naina Devi stampede at Rajpura on Monday. Tribune photo: J.S. Virdi

Fourteen-year-old Manpreet Singh and 15-year-old Harjinder Singh died while saving themselves in the stampede. Their parents, who had allowed them go along with a village group to visit various religious places, will regret this decision the rest of their lives.

While Manpreet’s father Lakshman Singh is a small time farmer, Harjinder’s father Balwant Singh is a granthi at local Gurudwara.

According to the villagers, around 30 people including women and children had left to visit various religious places including Anandpur Sahib, the two boys too decided to accompany them. The villagers left in a trolley and were on their way downwards from the temple when the stampede occurred.

“We don’t know how these two got separated but those who have died were mostly the ones who were climbing upwards,” said Shingar Singh.

The terrified villagers stated the minute they reached the base of the temple they immediately left on their trolley and only stopped when they reached Anandpur Sahib, there they narrated the whole incident to the local granthis in the Gurudwara who then accompanied them back in trucks to the temple. “We realised that the two boys were missing when we did a head count.”

But when we went back there was noting left but a trail of death,” said Baljit Singh.

The two were cremated today evening at the village. Local MLA Nirmal Singh also attended the last rites along with the whole village.

Another family lost their nine-year-old son Ankitin to the stampede. The family, resident of colony near Band Fatak, Ambala City, had gone to Naina Devi on Sunday. During the stampede Ankit got separated from the family, informed his father Vigyanand. He has a younger brother Rohit who was however, saved and suffered only a few scratches.

The deputy commissioner Mohammad Shayin expressed his condolences and informed that the next of kin would be awarded a compensation of one lakh rupees as declared by the Chief Minister. 

They lost only brother just before Rakhi
Gagan K. Teja
Tribune News Service

Ambala, August 4
Taking the first of its kind initiative, the police today identified 32 places as sensitive in the district.

Talking to TNS, SP Sibash Kabiraj informed that the police had identified these places after undertaking a survey of various markets, important junctions, religious places and markets.

Extra manpower deployment at these places is now on the cards. The police is undertaking a manpower audit and will also try and make maximum utilisation of their force.

The initiative the SP was taken after orders were received from the police headquarters.

The police, along with the district administration, is also taking initiative of identifying the ambulances in the district. Private hospitals have also been asked to furnish details of ambulances and various other facilities.

Hospitals have also been told to stay on standby in case of any untoward incident. This is being done keeping the recent terrorist activities in the country in mind and also yesterday’s incident of stampede at the Naina Devi Temple, officials stated.

Also, with the Independence Day approaching, the police is being extra cautious.

Zirakpur, August 4
The Zirakpur Municipal Council has issued notice to four marriage palaces and two housing projects. They been asked not to dispose of garbage or release contaminated water into Singhnallah.

According to MC official, the marriage palaces include West Wood marriage palace, Komfort marriage palace, Fort marriage palace and Nimantaran Banquet Hall and two housing projects.

The Municipal Council officials also stated that the government had passed these projects on the conditions that sewerage treatment plant would be installed and water will be disposed of only after it is treated. But these marriage palaces and housing projects did not follow the directions and the polluted water was being drained out by them directly into the Singhnallah.

The matter regarding discharge of effluence is already pending in Punjab and Haryana High Court. In fact, the high court has directed the adoption of several measures to ensure the cleanliness of the Singhnallah, said MC officials.

Zirakpur/Dera Bassi/Lalru, August 4
The distance to the district administrative complex functioning from the PUDA building at Phase I in Mohali has only increased for residents of Zirakpur, Dera Bassi and Lalru with the ongoing construction of flyover and in absence of a proper public transport service.

The commuters claim in the absence of regular local bus service it is difficult for them to reach the district administrative complex office. The situation has worsened over the months as even auto-rickshaw drivers refuse to ferry them because of the chaos caused due to the construction.

Residents living in Zirakpur claim the local buses seldom follow the schedule.

Randhir Thakur, a resident of Ward 12, Zirakpur, says two days back when he had some work in district administrative complex, he took auto-rickshaw to save time, but was caught in traffic jam near Lucky dhaba. It took him more than an hour to cross Zirakpur.

Anil, a resident of Dera Bassi, says in this area the local bus service is very poor. In fact, there is no direct bus to Mohali. Giving details of the difficulties faced by the commuters, he says it is difficult for all to reach Chandigarh because “we have to change two buses. Then we have to take a bus or auto-rickshaw to reach Mohali, Phase I.”

Krishan Lal, another resident of Dera Bassi, says “I have to shell out my hard earned money for hiring an auto-rickshaw to reach Zirakpur. Then, I have to take another auto-rickshaw to reach ISBT-43, Chandigarh. I spend around Rs 110 to reach ISBT-43.”

The residents from Lalru and surrounding areas first take private or long route buses to Zirakpur bus stand from where they take another bus to Phase I, if available, otherwise they hire auto-rickshaw. Harmesh Singh, a resident of Lalru, says, “Sometimes we take long route buses coming from Ambala or Delhi. These buses drop us near ISBT-43, Chandigarh, from where we take local bus to reach district administrative complex.”

Chandigarh, August 4
Riding high on 136 off 183 by Yuvraj Singh, the Mohali team consolidated its position by posting 297 for 7 in 82 overs in the first innings in the Punjab State Inter-District under 19 years match against Zone A at the PCA Cricket Stadium here today.

Putting in to bat first, Mohali was tottering at 83 for 5 at one stage when Yuvraj salvaged the innings with his scintillating knock studded with 16 boundaries. He stitched a 79-run partnership for 6 th wicket with Gunjot Singh (29) and 89 runs stand with Harpreet (24 n o) before being stumped out by Manil off Sukhdeep.

Medium pacer Raj Kamal played a vital role for Zone A by claiming four for 50. Sukhdeep struck with two for 93.

Zone A had a disaster start as the team lost their opener Gurpreet when the scoreboard read just two. At the close of the play, Zone A were 19 for 1 in 11 overs.

In the second match at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium between Chandigarh and Amritsar, the local outfit put themselves in the driver’s seat by putting on 343 for 9 in 95 overs.

Openers Shivam Khurana (68 off 146) and Shah Nawaj Mirza (42 off 72) provided a solid start to the team with their partnership of 82 runs.

Ankit Kaushik took charge of the proceedings and hammered an unbeaten century (100 n o in 153 balls) to help the team reach a huge total.

Pankaj Chowdhary (4 for 111) and Vinay Chowdhary (3 for 109) were the pick of Amritsar bowlers.

Brief score:

Mohali: 297 for 7 in 82 overs (Yuvraj 136, Jaskaran 39 n o, Gunjot 29, Harpreet 24 n o, Rajkamal 4 for 50, Sukhdeep 2 for 93).

Zone A: 19 for 1 in 11 overs.

Chandigarh: 343 for 9 in 95 overs (Shivam Khurana 68, Shah Nawaz Mirza 42, Anil Sihag 40, Ankit Kaushik 100, Gaurav Puri 22, Anshul Tripathi 32, Pankaj Chaudhary 4 for 111, Vinay Chaudhary 3 for 109).

Chandigarh, August 4
The Southern Air Command (SAC), Western Air Command (WAC), South Western Air Command (SWAC) and Maintenance Command (MC) teams started their campaign on a winning note in the Air Force Hockey Championship that started at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42, here today.

SAC and SWAC beat Eastern Air Command (EAC) and Training Command (TC) by identical score while WAC got the better of Central Air Command (CAC) by 3-1.

In the last match of the day between the Air Headquarters team and MC team, the latter thrashed the former by 3-0 riding high on the hat-trick by LAC Vignesh (9th min, 20th min and 57 th min).

A total of eight teams are participating in the championship which is being organised in the city by 3 BRD (3 Base Repair Depot) Air Force, aiming at selecting the Air Force Hockey team for participating in forthcoming Inter-Services Hockey Championship.

Earlier, Air Marshal Gautam Nayyar, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Maintenance Command inaugurated the championship following a glittering function which was attended by a large number of serving and retired Air Force officers.

The opening ceremony was marked by a march past by the participating teams, a breathtaking para diving display by the famous Akash Ganga team and colourful programmes by schoolchildren. Adding excitement to the opening extravaganza was a fly past by AN 32 aircraft formation and helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Chandigarh, August 4
The Chandigarh sports department has added 16 more seats under its sports wing scheme to facilitate the sportspersons.

This year, the department is allotting 386 sports wing seats in schools and 220 in sports coaching centres (606) in comparison to the last year’s total of 587.

According to joint director Dr J.P. Sidhu, the purpose of this scheme is to prepare players to achieve excellence in sports. The players who have secured first three positions at the state level, inter-school and state open championship(s) will be eligible for enrolment in the sports wings.

Trials for the sports wing seats at schools will start on September 1 and continue till January 31 next year while for the seats at sports coaching centre, the trials will commence on September 1 and continue up to February 28 next year.

Panchkula, August 4
Maintaining their dominance, host Manav Mangal School, Sector 11, emerged undisputed champion for the second consecutive year, winning four titles in Panchkula District Table Tennis Championship at the school premises.

The school players won titles in the Under-14 and U-17 in girls’ category and U-14 and U-17 in boys’ section. Manav Mangal School beat Bhavan Vidyalaya by 3-0 and the Gurukul by 3-0 in U-14 and U-17 girls’ categories, respectively.

While in U-19 girls’ section, Bhavan Vidyalaya won the championship. In boys’ section (U-14) the school team beat Bhavan Vidyalaya by 3-0.

Other results are as follow:

Under 14 Girls: Manav Mangal beat Bhavan Vidyalaya by 3-0 (Anu Saini beat Poonam 11-6, 11-2; Priya beat Phalguni 11-8, 11-4; Komal beat Ankita 11-4, 13-11).

Under 17 Girls: Manav Mangal School beat The Gurukul by 3-0 (Aastha beat Ishani 11-4, 11-9; Aishwarya beat Akanksha 11-1, 11-5; Himani beat Divya 11-1, 11-4)

Under 19 Girls: Bhavan Vidyalaya beat Hansraj Public School by 3-0 (Chioma beat Savvy 11-5, 11-4; Dharvi beat Poornima 11-6, 11-3; Jagriti beat Pritish 11-3, 11-1).

Under 14 Boys: Manav Mangal School beat Bhavan Vidyalya by 3-0 (Manu beat Rishabh 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6; Shashwat beat Anmol 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5; Sajal beat Shivam 11-7, 11-5, 11-10)

Under 17 Boys: Manav Mangal School beat Bhavan Vidyalaya by 3-1 (Shubham lost to Vaibhav 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11; Prasoon beat Archit 9-11, 14-12, 7-11, 11-2, 11-8; Akash beat Chaitanaya 11-8, 11-3, 9-11, 11-5; Prasoon beat Vaibhav 11-7, 11-7, 11-3)

Under 19 Boys: C L DAV beat DAV School by 3-0 (Abhinav beat Dushyant 12-10, 11-4, 11-4; Jaspreet beat Kabir 11-7, 11-8, 13-11; Savvy beat Shashank 11-5, 9-11, 11-3, 11-6).

Chandigarh, August 4
The police arrested Papu Chaudhary, a resident of Bihar, on the charges of possession of illegal liquor from Mauli Jagran here this evening.

According to the police, the accused was on his way to Sonipat after loading 150 bottles of liquor in his Tata 407. The accused was said to be active since over a year and was use to sell liquor in Sonipat at higher rates.

The accused was arrested during a special naka. To fool the police, Papu had placed empty bags on the liquor boxes. During the search, the police recovered the boxes from the truck.