NEIGHBOURHOOD

Classical music fest draws to a close
Our Correspondent

Patiala, March 7
Mata Gujri girls’ hostel of the Khalsa College here celebrated ‘Marak Punjaban di’ recently to welcome hostel inmates and provide them a chance to show their talent.

Cultural activities on social themes were presented. Jyoti won the title of ‘Miss Hunar’, Harjaspreet Kaur ‘Miss Punjaban’ and Harmanpreet Kaur ‘Overall Best Performer’.

Jaswinder Kaur, wife of the director of education with the SGPC, Dr Gurmohan Singh Walia, was the chief guest.

She praised the hard work and dedication shown by hostel inmates and motivated them to have a vision and make life goal-oriented.

Prof Ambika, former vice-principal, was the guest of honour. She praised the girls for their performances and stressed that girls were a priceless gift of God.

Swaranjeet Kaur, wife of the principal, Dr Dharminder Singh Ubha, was also a guest of honour. She advised the girls to imbibe teachings of Sikh Gurus.

The principal welcomed the guests. Prof Jaspreet Kaur, chief warden, thanked the guests and students.

Panchkula, March 7
To mark the International Women’s Day, the women studies and development cell of Smt AAA Government Postgraduate College at Kalka organised a function on the college premises today.

Besides a poetic symposium, competitions in embroidery, poster-making, tie and dye and slogan-writing were held. Both boy and girl students of the college participated in the contests.

Principal HK Sharma appreciated the efforts in organising the programme. The Kalka SDO (Civil), Manita Malik, was the chief guest. A booklet of poems written by students, titled ‘Taringini’, was also released.

Dera Bassi: Sri Sukhmani Group of Institutes celebrated the International Women’s Day with fervour here today.

Members of the institute of engineering and technology participated in various events. Salad-making, flower decoration, ‘rangoli’ design and singing competitions were organised by the staff.

Registrar Gurpreet Kaur said women continued to march ahead, but continued to be victims of domestic violence, discrimination and criticism.

She added that lasting solutions to serious social, economic and political problems were unlikely to be found until men and women worked together to secure the rights and full potential of women.

Group chairman Avtar Singh was the chief guest. He said the combined effort of men and women could take the nation to new heights.

He added that the participation of society as a whole was needed to put an end to gender discrimination. Group director Kanwaljit Kaur was the guest of honour.

Panchkula, March 7
In the Pinjore municipal scam, the Haryana Vigilance Bureau has recently taken the fingerprints of five accused who were directed to join the investigation by the Panchkula District Courts.

The bureau has sent these fingerprints to the forensic lab in Madhuban, Karnal, to find if these match with those found on the documents seized during the earlier raids. Besides, the bureau had already issued warrants against Pinjore MC former president Kuldeep Singh, Secretary Kashmiri Lal Bansal, MC clerk Hargu Lal and contractor Charanjit Singh.

Earlier, a Panchkula court had granted interim bail to accused Sanjeev Kumar, Jagmohan Dhiman, Amarchand, Avinash Kaur and Chinder Pal and directed them to join the investigation. In this case, a contractor, Mohan Lal has been arrested.

The accused embezzled in the name of manufacturing iron lids for drains, clearing debris, cleaning of underground septic tanks and putting up traffic light points.

The Pinjore MC had given a contract for removing debris after demolitions of shops in Pinjore, to Mohan Lal in 2008-09, allegedly without following proper procedure and on false quotations. A total of Rs 9.49 lakh was embezzled without any work done, the vigilance report had said, adding that the shopkeepers had to remove the debris themselves.

In the second case, for the cleaning of five safety tanks, instead of Rs 10,000, a contract of Rs 6.92 lakh was awarded to Mohal Lal without any tender or advertisement.

Besides, no tender was called for awarding contract for iron lids to cover drains in the Pinjore MC wards in 2008-09. A total of Rs 85.18 lakh was embezzled on the basis of fake bills as no lids, in conjunction with the bills, were found on drains during a survey.

Another contract for putting up traffic lights at the T-point at Pinjore bus stand in 2007-08 was given to Kamal Bhatia, alias Sonu, of Sonu Electricals, Kalka, without a tender and he was paid Rs 10.01 lakh. He was not even an authorised dealer. On technical advice, it was found that only Rs 6,56,575 was spent, causing the MC a loss of Rs 3,44,675.

Chandigarh, March 7
High drama was witnessed at the GMSH, Sector 16, when the family of 28-year-old Sudesh, who died yesterday allegedly due to burn injuries, reached the hospital to claim her body, here today.

Chandigarh, March 7
Chandigarh Coaching Centre, Sector 17, and the DAV Club, Sector 18, qualified for the semi-finals from group A in the ongoing Chandigarh Senior Men’s Football Championship at Football Stadium, Sector 17, here today.

In the super league matches, played at Coaching Centre eked out a narrow 1-0 verdict against Principal AG (Audit) Punjab while the DAV Club outplayed the Blue Star Club by 4-0. The DAV Club topped their pool while the Coaching Centre finished runners-up.

The Coaching Centre beat Principal AG (Audit) Punjab in the crucial league match. Audit Punjab were experienced and played against a young side which matched their seniors in every department of the game. The Coaching Centre started putting pressure from the kick off, but the tough defence of Audit Punjab managed by national player Deepak did not allow them to do any harm.

The Coaching Centre mounted more pressure and managed to break the defence of their rivals in 25th minute when their right winger Bhupinder gave a through pass to right striker Deepak Hooda whose powerful shot was deflected by Audit Punjab goal-keeper and hit the goal post and went out. It was a narrow escape for Audit goal. The first half remained goal-less.

After lemon break, the Coaching Centre boys started the game on a promising note when their right striker Deepak sent a diagonal pass to midfielder Saurav, who sent a cross in the dangerous area of Audit goal. The speedy right winger, Bhupinder, trapped the cross on his chest and made a powerful volley in the far corner of the Audit goal post and scored the match winning goal for the Coaching Centre team.

Encouraged by the goal, the coaching centre boys tried to increase the tally but a dangerous shot of right winger Bhupinder of the Coaching Centre was punched over the goal post by the Audit goalkeeper at the cost of corner kick. The Audit forward line failed to equalise the score in spite of best efforts.

In the second match, DAV Football Club beat Blue Star Club by 4-0 in a one sided match. DAV boys were better in all the departments of the game and played a coordinated game. Blue Star boys initiated a dangerous move in second minute but failed due to erratic shooting indulged by their forwards.

The DAV boys struck the first goal against Blue Star in 10th minute when their star striker, Munish Mundri, opened the account for his team with a powerful shot. DAV Club added two more goals in 16th minute and 22nd minutes and the scorer were right half Ajay and left winger Ashok. The winners led 3-0 at half time.

After lemon break DAV scored completed their tally in 57th minute through Sonu who scored the goal with angular shot.

Chandigarh, March 7
Even as trainees at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) are not ready to accept less than the reinstatement of their former director coaching, Gurvarinder Singh, the authorities have appointed international tennis coach, Gajendra Singh, on the post today. Gajendra who was preparing Bangladesh team for the forthcoming Davis cup, will take the charge of director coaching as and when he returns, said the CLTA president Jai Singh Gill.

Gajendra Singh had his stint as COO and director coaching at the CLTA, earlier, also before going abroad.

Today no practice sessions could be held at the CLTA grounds due to boycott of the trainees. Later, the talks between the authorities and parents of the trainees failed to make any headway. The parents of trainees met honorary secretary Jasjit Singh, in the afternoon, who assured them of looking in to their grievances. But then he refused to consider the reappointment of Gurvarinder as director coaching. Gurvarinder had resigned from the post on Friday and later alleged that he had to leave the post due to every alternate day harassment at the hands of chief operating officer.

Gurvarinder said he was ready to join the CLTA again in case the present COO was removed. The trainees said they would take out a candle march on Friday evening.

Chandigarh, March 7
Kapil of Uttarakhand emerged winner in the first round of men’s light fly (46-49kg) category in the five-day 19th AK Mishra All-India Senior Men’s Boxing Championship, here today. The championship is being organised by the Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association.

In the first round of men’s light fly (46-49kg) category, there were others who qualified for the second session include Amarjit Singh (ASI), Tarsem Kumar (CHD B), Amit (Har) and K Chinak Rao (AP).

Similarly, in 52 kg category, Inderpreet (MP), Mahima Singh (ASI) and Maan Singh (UK) were able to move to next round.

Surender (CHD), Hitender (HP), Kuldeep (ASI) and M Shanmugam (Army) qualified for the next round of men’ bantam (56kg) while Kulwinder was adjudged winner to qualify for the second round in men’s light (60kg).

Over 150 players of 15 teams from the different parts of country reached to participate in the meet.