SPORTS

Vishaka, Neha surge ahead
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, July 15
Vishaka and Neha surged ahead in the third round on the opening day of the seventh St Stephen’s Carrom Ranking Tournament played here today at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45. As many as 170 players from the city are taking part in the meet.

The players who won their matches today are men’s singles: Om Prakash, Anurag Kala, Mohd. Yusuf, Zaffar Khan, Sayyad, Umeed Ali, Paramdeep, Mukesh Piplani and Suzas Raha. Women singles: Inder, Nidhi Patwal, Gulab Negi. Boys singles: Piyush Sood, Nikhil, Rizwan, Ravinder, Mohd Apoorva, Varun,Viren, Shenwaz and Nikhil. Junior girls,Suguna Dewan, Akansha, Anjali Yadav and Harshpreet. Sub-junior girls: Vishaka, Bhanu, Neha,Surubhi, Harshpreet, Pallavi and Akansha. Sub-junior boys: Piyush, Deval and Mohd. Naushad.

ADMINISTRATION

Verma reviews progress on rehabilitation tenements
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15
The UT Administrator, Justice O.P. Verma (retd), today reviewed the progress of 240 rehabilitation tenements constructed in Industrial Area. He asked the Deputy Commissioner to hand over the list of over 300 squatters to the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) within two months so that they could be allotted houses.

Meanwhile, the CHB would carry out the repair of these tenements, while the Engineering Department would provide roads and other services.

Justice Verma said slum-dwellers should be asked not to use handpump. He said the Health Department should conduct door-to-door visit to distribute chlorine tablets among residents. He expressed concern over the failure of water samples of slums. He said the residents should be told to use handpumps only for bathing and washing clothes and they should be advised not to use it for drinking purposes. The Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, was asked to install extra stand posts for potable water.

The Administrator also reviewed the problems being faced by the Health Department regarding the non-availability of rabies vaccines in dispensaries. The Finance Secretary reported that there are over 8,000 dog bite cases reported in the city every year, out of which 3,000 come to Chandigarh for treatment from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Earlier, a Kasauli-based institute was supplying the vaccines at Rs 70 per vaccine but now the Health Ministry has ordered that the vaccines can not be sold in the open market so the department would have to procure commercial vaccines from the private companies which may cost Rs 1,050 per person.

Justice Verma asked the Chief Architect to identify space for putting advertisement panels in commercial areas so that people should be encouraged to put their advertisement on a commercial space rather than having illegal hoardings all over the city.

Agnihotri standing counsel for Centre
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15
Mr Deepak Agnihotri has been appointed senior standing counsel for the Union Government for three years. He will represent all departments of the Central Government, except the Railways, before the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT).

The tenure of Mr Agnihotri, who has been practising as an advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for over 20 years, will be three years.

Mr Agnihotri had been additional standing counsel for the Central Government, the Union Territory of Chandigarh, Punjab, Punjab Agricultural University, Punjab National Bank and the Food Corporation of India. 

Private cars running as taxis impounded
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 15
The Mohali traffic police has impounded several cars being run as private taxis in the township. A special drive to nab private car owners who were using their cars for commercial purposes was started by the traffic police yesterday. The traffic police had received a communication from the district transport authorities requesting for help to check the mushrooming of unregistered taxis.

Three cars being run as taxis from Phase IV were impounded by the police yesterday. Traffic in charge Inspector Jagjit Singh said that many of the taxi stands operating in Mohali were not registered with the Transport Department. The department was losing a large amount of income in the form of registration fee, road and state taxes.

Mr Jagjit Singh added that the drive would continue for the the next few days till all such cars are impounded.

MC fixes Rs 1000 for last rites of unclaimed bodies
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 15
After the controversy over the performing of last rites of an abandoned child yesterday, the Municipal Council has decided to fix an amount of Rs 1000 for the last rites of unclaimed bodies found within the MC limits.

In an official press note, the Executive Officer of the MC said since the council was established only three years ago, an NGO, Aggarwal Sabha, had been given the authority to perform the last rites of unclaimed bodies. He said a decision for the MC taking over the job now was fixed after a meeting was held with the Deputy Commissioner today.

It may be recalled that the MC had yesterday refused to perform the last rites of eight-year-old girl, Pooja, suffering from tuberculosis, who was abandoned by her brother. The hospital authorities had asked the MC to cremate the body, after the girl died at the hospital, but the MC officials had refused on the pretext that the Aggarwal Sabha was notified by the government for the performance of last rites of abandoned/ unclaimed bodies.

Meanwhile, the council drew flak from the Forum for Common Cause for failing to act in the case. Mr Deepak Rai Walia, president of the forum said human face of the council was the need of hour. He said it was unfortunate that the council directed a private organisation to cremate the child, as it was the council’s responsibility to provide all civic amenities to the living, which also entails an honorable cremation for the dead.