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Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, January 4
The State of Haryana’s decision to bring the famous Kali Mata temple of Kalka under Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board was today challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Taking up the petition filed in public interest, the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih issued notice of motion to the state and other respondents for filing their response on the issue. In their petition, Ram Murti and five other residents of Solan district in Himachal Pradesh had earlier sought directions for quashing the notifications issued by the state on July 8 and July 22 last, bringing the temple under the shrine board.

Describing themselves as co-owners of the land on which the temple is located, the petitioners alleged the board constituted under the Mata Mansa Devi Act had over the years become a medium for generating employment in the hands of political leaders and bureaucrats. The petitioners claimed they were managing the temple affairs for the past many years without any dispute. The donation received from the devotees was spent on maintenance, construction and renovation of the temple. The case will come up for hearing on January 9. 

Zirakpur, January 4
A day after a cashier was robbed of Rs 5 lakh and shot dead by some unidentified youths, the police arrested three suspects from a residential area here today.

The police had earlier cordoned off the area following a tip-off on the presence of the suspects in the colony. After a three-hour search operation, the police arrested the three, including a proclaimed offender. They had been residing in flat No. 24 of Simran Apartment, Ekta Vihar, Baltana, for the past few months. They have been identified as Kashu Sharma, Bikram and Rajinder Kumar, all residents of J&K.

The police said Kashu Sharma had a criminal background and was wanted in many cases, including attempt to murder cases. Zirakpur SHO Yogi Raj said on receiving a tip-off that the suspects were living in the area, a police team reached the spot around 6.35 pm and started a search operation. As the youths came to know about the search operation, they tried to flee. It kept knocking the door of their flat, but no one responded. Ultimately, the police had to break open windowpanes of the house.

The police warned them to come out within ten minutes or else it would start firing. The youths came out 2 minutes before the police’s deadline.

A black coloured car bearing a registration number of Chandigarh and a number of rice bags were recovered from their possession.

During interrogation, it was found that the youths thought that the J&K Police had come to arrest them and fearing the arrest, they tried to flee.

Meanwhile, the police had raided a number of places and questioned employees of various liquor vends in the area. The police had also rounded up one person. Last night, the police had also recovered a black coloured motorcycle without any registration number from Badal Colony in Zirakpur. It suspected that the accused would have used the two-wheeler in the crime.

On January 3, two masked motorcycle-borne youths shot dead a cashier at a liquor vend in Baltana while robbing him of ` 5 lakh in cash. The incident took place near the bank square in Kalgidhar Enclave on the Zirakpur-Kalka highway when the victim, Mahavir Singla, 35, was on his way to Kotak Mahindra Bank to deposit the vend’s sale proceeds. Singla had a minor scuffle with the assailants before being shot.

Chandigarh, January 4
Punjab bowlers sent six batsmen of Uttar Pradesh back to pavilion in the quarterfinals of Cooch Behar Elite Tie (U-19) being played at Holkar Stadium, Indore.

In reply to Punjab’s first innings’ total of 409, UP was at 197 for 6 in 71 overs at the end of today’s play.

For UP, Ashish Singh was the top scorer with 70 runs, followed by Prakshan Farazm, who chipped in 41 runs. UP had a disastrous start when their opener Varun Tyagi was bowled out by Sandeep Sharma for a blob and the teams total reading 9 for 1. Then Ashish Singh and Prakshan Farazm stitched a 101-run partnership for the second wicket. Prakshan Farazam was the next to go when he was snapped by wicket keeper Mohit Handa off Gurkirat Singh for 41 off 162.

At one stage UP was at 131 for 5. Then Shivansh Sharma and Aman Litt stitched a 54-run partnership for the sixth wicket. The successful Punjab’s bowlers were Gurkirat Singh (2 for 36), Gurinder Singh (1 for 51), Kamal Passi (1 for 56) and Sandeep Sharma (1 for 50).

Earlier, resuming from their overnight total of 349 for 7 in 89.5 overs, Punjab put on a total of 409 (all out) in 108.3 overs. Punjab had an early set back in the morning when Gurinder Singh was bowled by SH Malik. Mohit Handa and Sandeep Sharma steered the total to 399 with their 49-run stand for ninth wicket. Sandeep Sharma was bowled by Saurab Kumar for 11, whereas Handa completed his half century in 77 balls.

SH Malik completed his five-wicket haul, conceding 123 runs, while AS Rajput took 3 for 105.

Scores

Punjab (first innings) : 409 for all out in 108.3 overs ( Mandeep Singh 104, Anil Sihag 107 Manan Vohra 43 Love Kumar 43, Pargat Singh 26 and Mohit Handa (50).

SH Malik 5 for 123 and AS Rajput 3 for 106

UP (first innings) : 197 for 6 in 71 overs (Ashish Singh 70, Prakshan Farazm 41, Shivansh Sharma 39 not out , Aman Litt 22, Gurkirat Singh 2 for 36, Gurinder Singh 1 for 51, Kamal Passi 1 for 56 and Sandeep Sharma 1 for 50).

Chandigarh, January 4
Nine-year-old Aadil Bedi, a student of Class IV of Vivek High School, has finished second in the Indian Golf Union (IGU) rankings for Category D (under-10) logging 204 points after the just-concluded All-India Junior/Sub-junior Golf Championship at the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bangalore.

At Eagleton, Aadil sank two birdies and parred nine times to charge to a nine over par 81 score on the last day.

His scores of 81 and 82 on the first two days, respectively, got him the runner-up trophy in the all-India event.

Two other city boys occupied the third slot in the IGU rankings. In Category C (under-13), Karandeep Kochar logged 163 points and in Category A (under-18), Tarundeep Chadha tallied 159 points to finish third.In Category B (under-15), Feroz Grewal, also from Chandigarh, could muster only 103 points to finish sixth.

Karandeep Kochar played some gutsy golf and finished third in the final match.

The IGU has extended the privilege to all these juniors to play on any golf course in India without paying the green fee.

Chandigarh, January 4
The Local Total Tennis Academy will be organising the YMCA Total Tennis Tournament at their academy in Sector 11 from January 7.

The four-day tournament will witness matches in various age groups, including under-10, U-12, U-14, U-18 and men singles in boys section and under-12, U-14 and U-18 category in girls section. The matches will be played at YMCA’s six-clay courts.

Except Chandigarh, the players from neighbouring states, including Punjab and Haryana, are expected to participate in the tournament. Interested players can enroll themselves with Varun Kumar (7837668012) till January 6, 7 p m. — TNS