SPORTS

DAVSSS-8 win handball titles
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, November 16
DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, bagged handball title in the UT Inter-school Meet in under-19 and under-17 sections held here today. In the under-19 finals, DAVSSS-8 defeated GMSSS-23, at 26-14 while in the under 17 section, they beat Manav Mangal High school-21 at 20-5.

Boxing team

A 24-member UT boxing team including 12 women, will represent Chandigarh in the 31st National Games to be held at Patiala from November 19.

According to Mr C.K. Jerath, secretary, Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association, the team is: women — Ruchi Sood, Ginni Seth, Sangeeta, Amanpreet, Kulwinder Kaur, Vipin, kamal, Neelam, Sanyogita, Jasleen, Ginni Mehta and Divya; men — Ashwani Sharma, Dharam Singh, Anand Kumar, Sandeep Yadav, Sachin, D.S. Negi, Parveen Kumar, Ajay Singh, Amritpal Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Kuldeep Singh.

The officials accompanying the teams will be Jagdeep Singh,Renu Deepak, Sonia Kanwar, Sanjeev Kumar and Balkar Singh.

Boxing meet

The Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association will hold the 16th Chandigarh State Sub- Junior Boxing Championships on December 4 and 5 at coaching centre, Sector 23. The players thus selected will participate in for the 17th National Sub-Junior Boxing Championships to be held at Jamshedpur from December 17 to 23. The weighing in will be done on December 4 at 8 am.

Wrestling team

The Chandigarh UT Wrestling Association has announced team for the National Games. The team is: Freestyle — Karnail, Jugbir, Niranjan, Chand, Jaipal, Raj Singh, Sarwar, Parminder. Greco-Roman — Joginder, Satish, Kalu Ram, Sher Sikandar, Surinder, Jasbir, Mukesh and Kulbir. Sarwar Singh will be the captain of the team.

ADMINISTRATION

Jacob pleads for more powers for UT Administrator
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 16
The Governor of Punjab, Lt-Gen JFR Jacob (retd), who is also the Administrator of UT, Chandigarh, pleaded for more autonomy and powers for the Administrator of UT at the seventh meeting of the inter-state council presided over by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, at New Delhi today.

In his speech at the meeting, the Governor emphasised that in order to address the challenges of a responsive and efficient Administration, there was a need to provide additional powers to the Administrator of the Union Territory, especially with respect to creation of new posts, particularly in areas like Education, Health etc., which had a direct bearing on the quality of life of the citizens of Chandigarh. “It is evident that there is a need to expand these core sectors in relation to the growth in population. In case this is not done, then the quality of service provided to the citizens would decline due to the paucity of the required staff”, he said.

Another area where greater autonomy was required was delegation of financial powers. This was necessary so that there was greater efficiency in the decision-making process, and issues were decided at the level of the Administration, rather than having to refer matters to the Government of India.

The Union Territory of Chandigarh, he said, was largely influenced by its distinct geographic profile that placed it in the epicentre of the northern region, comprising the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. Notwithstanding its small size and population, Chandigarh had the trappings of a mega city and had emerged as an important hub of the region. Its vibrant economy and educational and referral medical facilities had contributed to factors in its growth as a model in the region. The larger issues of Center-state relations did not have significant bearing on the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

General Jacob also emphasised the need to enhance and improve the programme content of the newly opened Doordarshan Kendra in Chandigarh. There was also a need to open new FM channels of All India Radio at Chandigarh, which would go a long way in serving the information and educational needs of a large section of society.