NEIGHBOURHOOD

MP Libra has a dig at Badal
Our Correspondent

BANUR, AUGUST 6
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today inspected the four- lane project of Chandigarh-Bathinda road at Banur. After considering the map of the project, he said the project would cost Rs 2,500 crore. Punjab was all set to link all major towns with four or six lane roads in next two years with the total expenditure of Rs 13,000 crore.

With the completion of the expressway, the traffic flow between Chandigarh and Bathinda Refinery would be smooth and it would also facilitate traffic services to Haryana as well, he added.

He also inspected the alignment and construction of Zirakpur-Patiala four- lane expressway (NH-64) and issued necessary directions to ensure world class quality of the road. He said Punjab was the only state that built 29 ROBs in the past five years at the cost of Rs 402 crore.

Kalka, August 6
As many as 12 persons, including women and children, sustained multiple injuries in a road mishap in which a car collided with an autorickshaw.

The incident took place on National Highway-22, near Kalka police station, at around 12.15 am last night. The police sources said, according to Vinod Kumar, driver of the auto and resident of Naggal Bhagga village, the incident took place when a recklessly driven car hit the auto coming from Surajpur to Kalka. All the injured persons were rushed to the Community Health Centre (CHC), Kalka, from where two seriously injured were referred to the government hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. The car driver managed to flee from the spot.

Ambala, August 6
The Sikh leaders of Ambala have condemned the firing incident that occurred in Oak Creek’s gurdwara in the state of Wisconsin, which left seven persons dead.

A meeting of the Sikh community was held today where it was resolved that a memorandum in this regard would be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner tomorrow. They have requested the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter, so that the accused could be punished at the earliest.— OC

Chandigarh, August 6
Miffed over "arbitrary" methods adopted by private schools while admitting students, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Chandigarh Administration to explain why a uniform admission policy has not been formulated for all the private schools?

During the resumed hearing of a petition filed by 10 parents whose children were not admitted in the pre-nursery at St Kabir School, Sector 26, Justice Ranjit Singh made it clear that the court was in favour of a uniform policy for all the private schools in Chandigarh. The High Court also asked the authorities concerned to prevent arbitrariness at the time of admissions, and to provide details of the steps that were being taken in this regard.

A three-member committee formed to look into allegations levelled by parents against St Kabir School had given an adverse report against the school. The committee had alleged that the school had not followed the desired procedure and criteria for admission.

"The school authorities deviated from the common admission schedule and have erred by admitting children of a few preferred categories without fixing a limit and leaving very few seats for candidates of the general category," stated the report of the panel headed by the then DPI (Schools) Sandeep Hans. However, the allegations of non-transparency had not found favour with the committee.

Chandigarh, August 6
A day after a city resident was allegedly robbed of Rs 19,000 near the Police Lines, the police has arrested three of the four accused in the case.

Maheshwar, a resident of Govindpura in Mani Majra, was forcibly restrained and robbed of Rs 19,000 by four youths last evening.

Inspector Anokh Singh, SHO, Sector 26 police station, said the police had arrested the prime accused, Mukesh, alias Mogli, along with two accomplices, Sunny and Rajwinder. The fourth accused is still at large.

The accused have been arrested in a case under Sections 392, 341, 506 and 34 of the IPC.

In another case, Sudhir Kumar (35), a security guard posted at an ATM kiosk, was attacked last night. The incident took place outside the ATM of the Union Bank of India in Sector 7 around 2 am. Sudhir was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon, following which the assailant escaped.

The injured guard said he was attacked when an unidentified person who was behaving suspiciously tried to enter the kiosk, but was stopped.

Chandigarh, August 6
The tall claims of the UT Education Department to encourage sports among girl students have fallen flat. Only seven girls' teams showed interests in participating in the Inter-school Football Tournament for Girls (U-17) being held at Government Model Senior Secondary School Sector 23.

Out of the seven teams, five are from private schools and two from local government schools. Only one of the two government school teams managed to participate in the tourney. Altogether, six teams took part in the competition.

For the last three years, the department has been receiving the same numbers of entries. It has failed to attract more teams to participate. Moreover, inter-school tournament is the only main tournament that the UT Education Department organises. The department has 105 government schools under it in the city, out of which 33 are of senior secondary level. Yet the department failed to encourage more girls' teams.

"The game needs a lot of stamina and it is difficult to form teams in the competition. Earlier, the tournament used to witness good participation in the girls' (U-19) category. Hopefully, it will attract more and more interests of the players," said Rajeev Tandon, assistant education officer.

When asked about the efforts made by the department to promote the game, he said, "The department is motivating the players to participate and to form teams. In addition to that, the PTI teachers have been asked to form more teams. We will try to attract as many government school teams for U-19 and U-14 matches as possible," said Tandon.

He also said, "The department has decided to organise the girl's tourney now along with the boys' as it saves time."

The inter-school tourneys become important as these are the platforms from where the team for national level competition is selected.

A department official, seeking anonymity, said, "The officials should have given some time to the schools for the formation of teams before the inter-school tournament. One month is more than sufficient to make an average team."

The School Games Federation of India (SGFI) is expected to conduct School National Games for Girls (U-17) in October.

Chandigarh, August 6
The girls’ soccer team of Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, defeated Saupin’s School, Sector 32, to lift the title of Inter-school Football Tournament for Girls (U-17) here today.

The wining side posted a 3-2 victory over its rivals. Jaspreet Kaur, Sukrit and Sarika Kaul from the victorious team contributed one goal each.

From the opponent team Tanvi and Hartaniya scored one goal each.

The team of Sacred Heart School, Sector 26 ,defeated DPS, Sector 40, and secured the third place in the tournament. Gurleen Kaur put the team ahead after scoring in the 12th minute while Malaika doubled the lead after scoring in the 20th minute.

Chandigarh, August 6
In the ongoing Inter-school Judo Tournament, judoka Rohit of Government Model High School Sector 34 secured first place in the boys’ (U-17) event here today. In the same event, Abdul Rehman finished as second while Manish and Ravinder Pal secured third place in the tourney.

In the boys’ (45 kg) event, Ajay Minhas, Ankush, Sarwar and Ajit Kumar won top honours, while in the boys’ (50 kg) category Pushpinder, Vijay, Bhupinder and Durgesh won the top three positions, respectively.

Results

Boys’ (55 kg) category-Reetik, Sidhant, Sanjit and Navdeep; boys’ (60 kg) Sarwan, Arjun Bisht, Ravi Pratap and Vicky; boys’ (65 kg) category-Prince, Gurkirat, Uday and Rohit; boys’ (71 kg) category-Abhiraj, Jaspreet, Rakesh and Manu. Over All Championship-GMHS Sector 34 gets 24 points; GMHS Sector 43 gets19 points; ISDS Sector 21 gets 12 points.