HEALTH

Patients on their own in this city hospital
R. D. Sapra

Sonepat, December 13
The Sonepat Civil Hospital has been facing an acute shortage of medicines for the last few months, causing inconvenience to the visiting patients.

According to a report, visiting patients, particularly those involved in emergency, are being forced to purchase medicines including cotton and bandages from the market.

Some of the doctors, who attend to these patients late in the evening and during the night, purchase the medicines, cotton and bandages from their own pockets to treat them.

The Directorate of the Health Department, it may be recalled, had already withdrawn the Drawing and Disbursement (DD) powers from the Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr O. P. Hooda and had given it to Mr S. S. Gill.

Hitherto, Dr Hodda used to purchase the medicines from the local market to make them available to the visiting patients in case of emergency.

Representatives of various social and voluntary organisations had protested against the withdrawal of DD powers from Dr Hooda and urged the Directorate of Health Services to grant such powers to Dr Hooda without any further delay.

These organisations had emphasised that granting Dr Hooda the power of DD would prevent the deterioration of health services in the civil hospital.

Meanwhile, the Residents Welfare Association has urged the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala to order a high-level probe into the public complaints about the misleading figures regarding the administering of anti-polio drops to the children below the age of five years in this city and other parts of the district.

In a press release, it pointed out that such an inquiry would expose the scandalous figures of the department regarding the success of the immunisation programme against polio in the district.

The association also demanded an immediate transfer of the Chief Medical Officer and other officials found responsible for the medical scandal.

SPORTS

Ninja Kubai to lead Delhi soccer team
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 13
Ninja Kubai of City Club will lead a 20-member Delhi State Football team in the 38th Junior National (Under-19) Football Championship for the Dr B.C. Roy Trophy being conducted by the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) at Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan from December 15 to January 4. New Delhi Heroes’ defender Kuldip Tariyal has been named as the vice-captain.

Thirty teams, including defending champions Bihar and runners-up Manipur, are participating in the championship.

Delhi have been placed in Cluster III and play their first match against Karnataka on December 15, followed by Goa (December 17), Chandigarh (December 19) and Pondicherry (December 21).

Following are the team-members:

Goal-keepers: Manoj Kukreti (Garhwal Diamond), Sanjeev Kumar and Kapil Kumar (Glorious). Defenders: Kuldip Thariyal, Anil Bara, Manoj Singh Bisht (all Glorious), Karaj Singh (ND Heroes), Naresh Kumar (Garhwal Diamond) and Priyabarta (Banga Darshan).

Mid-fielders: G Ninja Kubai, Sidharth Bhandari (Shahdara), Bhoop Singh (Veteran), Parminder (Frontier) and Chetan Rawat (Glorious).

Forwards: Sunil Chettri (City), Christopher and Rajesh Kumar (Glorious), Ravinder Mohan Bisht (Hans), Uttam Singh Bisht (Shakti) and Sandeep Aswal (Panchkuian Youngs).

Standbys: Parveen Lawrence, Dinesh Lohar, Amit Rai, Prag and Anurag Meena.

Officials: Nagender Singh (manager), Jagdish Malhotra (coach) and Sunil Patwal (asst. coach).

The squad were selected by DSA selection committee chairman Leo Rodrigues and convenor N.K.Bhatia

League sub-committee

Meanwhile, the DSA Managing Committee has constituted a Senior Division League Sub-Committee with Mr Leo Rodrigues as chairman and Mr N.K. Bhatia and Syed Shaheen as convenors along with seven others as members to conduct the league.

Eighteen club teams are taking part in the league, starting on December 20 at three venues.

Sunaina, Pratima lift gold in Police Games
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 13
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) lifters dominated the show as Sunaina struck gold in the 58kg event and Pratima Kumari won the gold in the 63kg event in the women’s weightlifting event of the 50th All-India Police Games at the Chhawla Campus here on Thursday. In the 58kg category, Krishna Kumari of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) took the silver while Sudha Prabhu of Karnataka claimed the bronze.

In the 63kg event, Rama Devi and Pratima Pangsahi finished second and third behind Pratima. In the men’s 85kg event, Tejinder Singh of the Border Security Force (BSF) lifted the gold while Nitu Sharma (CISF) and Kuldeep Singh (Uttar Pradesh) claimed the silver and bronze, respectively.

In the 73kg judo event, Pankaj Sharma of Punjab won the gold, Jagbir Tokas of the CISF took the silver while Mushtaq Ahmed and Ashok Kumar of the BSF shared the bronze.

In the 66kg event, Najeeb Agha of the BSF snatched the gold, Kartar Singh of Punjab the silver and Karambir Singh and Anil Kumar of the CRPF shared the bronze.

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Uma Bharti will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony on Friday.

Delhi take command over Haryana
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 13
Delhi were in a commanding position when they scored 194 for 3 in 41 overs in reply to the Haryana total of 125 all out in 46.2 overs in the North Zone Under-22 League Match at Harbaksh Singh Stadium here on Thursday. Unbeaten knocks of 96 by Varun Kumar (16x4) and 84 by Sonu Vaid (8x4, 1x6) helped Delhi post a handsome total after Tejender Maan of Haryana claimed 2/24 to put Delhi on the defensive. Varun Kumar and Sonu Vaid put on 167 runs for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand.

Delhi, who won the toss and decided to field, made a rich harvest when Rakesh Raman Jha (4/48) and Puru Singh (4/18) bowled with venom to send Haryana packing for 125. Only Sumit Sharma (51: 7x4) and Bhuvnesh Sharma (2) offered some resistance, but could not prevent Haryana from folding up for a measly total. Amit Suman (1/24) and Dhruv Mohan (1/18) were the other wicket-takers for Delhi.

Delhi are now poised for a run away victory.

Haryana taekwondo from Jan 3
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 13
The Haryana State Taekwondo Championship will be held at MDU Sports Complex at Rohtak from January 3 to 6, 2002. Seven hundred taekwondo exponents are expected to participate in the sub-junior, junior and senior categories for men and women.

Haryana State Taekwondo Association president and Commissioner of the Rohtak Division Anita Choudhary said the championship would be declared open by ‘Khel Rattan’Abhey Singh Chautala on January 4 at 11 am.

Feroz Ali leads in Servo Masters
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 13
Feroz Ali cracked the course record with a superb seven-under 65 to take the lead in the Rs 8.5 lakh prize money Servo Masters Golf at Digboi Club Links on Thursday. The previous course record was jointly held by Rahul Ganapathy and Pradumn Guleria who returned six-under 66 apiece at the same event last year.

ADMINISTRATION

GHAZIABAD
New DM pledges all-round development
Parmindar Singh

Ghaziabad, December 13
The law and order is the top priority of the Ghaziabad’s new District Magistrate, Mr Devashish Panda, who is equally keen to fasten the pace of overall development of the district in both rural and urban areas. Detailed plans are being drawn to facilitate these.

“Funds are not a problem. What is important is proper planning and coordination with other agencies, like the Ghaziabad Mahanagar Nigam and the Ghaziabad Development Authority,” Mr Panda said.

He also pledged to provide better civic facilities like water and power supply, cleanliness, beautification of parks and better roads.

“Infrastructure facilities and conducive atmosphere are being provided to the investors here by the government agencies. A private export processing zone with captive power generation plant is being set up to invite their units here”, he said and added a meeting with the chairman and executive officers of civic bodies had been summoned in this regard.

The water supply, drainage and sewage systems of the towns and cities of the district were being strengthened, he said, and added the latest security concepts were being introduced in the residential localities of the city. The security in the city would be strengthened to maintain the law and order situation.

The new DM has a novel idea to make life in the city interesting. “Private enterprises can play a key role in developing leisure and entertainment complexes for which plenty of land can provide by the Nagar Nigam”, he said.

Four committees had been set up to look into the bottlenecks that slow down the pace of development activities. These would function as core groups on investment, on official-entrepreneur interaction and on the infrastructure. The industrialists would also be involved in these groups for development activities, who will provide recommendations for implementation.

So far as crime in the city is concerned, Mr Devashish felt that the problem got highlighted more here than elsewhere. But with the emphasis on development, it should be possible to generate more employment, investment and leisure activities thus reducing the incidents of crime.

He said, “I have conceived a new concept of organising a weekly Block Divas in addition to the Tehsil Divas to hear the farmers’ problems. I will constitute a team of officers to hold interactive sessions with farmers to solve their problems on the spot. The farmers will thus be able to pay more attention to their profession instead of running around the collectorate to get their work done”, he said.

The farmers should move to diversified agriculture activities in addition to the conventional crops. “Rural engineering, irrigation, power, law and order are the key areas where we should restore the faith in the farmer community to put more strength to increase agricultural output,” he added.

He said that the number of camera teams had been increased to complete the target of issuing photo identity cards to the voters.

The public representatives, political parties and gram pradhans were being involved in the process. The revision of electoral rolls was completed by November 29. 

Absentee officials cautioned, will be suspended
Our Correspondent

Noida, December 12
The District Magistrate (DM) of Gautam Budh Nagar, Mr Deepak Kumar, today warned that officials who absent themselves from the Tehsil Day meetings would be punished with suspension.

He has ordered the deduction of one day's wages of the District Basic Education Officer and District Inspector of Schools who were absent from the meeting in which 16 of the 55 complaints received were resolved. The complaints included Kote village resident Dhoom Singh's request to remove the 1100 KV power cable passing above his house, Premwati's plea for a widow pension from the Social Welfare Department and farmers grievances against the Noida Power Company Ltd and against non-supply of water.

The District Magistrate ordered the officials concerned to submit compliance reports within a week. Mr Deepak Kumar said 784 complaints presented at the last Tehsil Divas had been resolved and ordered that the remaining 84 complaints must be resolved within a week by the officials concerned. On discovering that the District Basic Education Officer and District Inspector of Schools were absent, the DM ordered to stop the disbursement of their wages and deduct one day's wages.

He said that, "In future, officials absenting themselves from Tehsil Divas will be suspended straightaway.

Those ignoring orders will be dealt with strictly." At the meeting, MLA Nawab Singh Nagar suggested that more polling centres must be set up in about a dozen villages, including Tisanda, Khatana, Aravali Holas and Kote.