Chandigarh, March 20
A toy room was inaugurated at the Sahayta Cancer Sahyog Bhavan for children suffering from cancer here today.

Excitement and hope were in the air as volunteers of the NGO, committed towards providing holistic help to cancer patients, escorted Ms Jean Rodrigues, wife of Punjab Governor and UT Administrator S.F. Rodrigues (retd), who inaugurated the toy room.

Ms Rodgrigues was all praise for the society and its mission.

“Run by very special people, love, care and concern are prevalent in all that is being done for the many who come for help,” she wrote in the visitors’ book.

Meanwhile, group president Renu Saigal pleaded for contributions from general public to finance the activities of the NGO.

“Cash donations will go a long way in buying chemotherapy medicines for cancer patients,”
she said.

“The inauguration of the toy room will supplement our efforts to put life back in the lives of the cancer-afflicted children. The NGO has already started a toy bank in the oncology department of the advanced paediatrics centre at the PGI to make their hospital visits a little less dreadful,” added Ajay Tuli, administrator of the Sahayta Charitable Welfare Society.

Chandigarh, March 20
Nishchay Rawal stormed into the final of the under-12 and under-16 categories during the third L.D. Kapoor Memorial YMCA Total Tennis Championship being played at YMCA Total Tennis Academy courts, Sector 11, here today.

Raghav Singal whitewashed Aviraj Kamboj 6-0, 6-0 to enter the final of boys u-16 category.

In the girls u-12 semifinal, Aashima Garg took the first set 7-5 in 40 minutes but then, Nandinee Sharma turned the tables around. Nandinee took the next two sets 6-4, 6-3 and the match to book her berth in the finals.

The results (semifinals):

Boys u-10: Sachin Kumar b Sumit Pal Singh 6-1, 6-1; Param Punn b Nihit Rawal 6-3, 6-1

Boys u-12: Digvijay Naruka b Utkarsh Khosla 6-0, 6-1; Nishchay Rawal b Jatinder Singh 6-4, 6-0

Boys u-14: Digvijay Naruka b Ravisher Singh 6-2, 6-3; Pankaj Kumar b Nishchay Rawal 6-4, 3-6, 6-4

Boys u-16: Raghav Singal b Aviraj Kamboj 6-0, 6-0; Nishchay Rawal b Ishan Gupta 6-3, 6-4

Girls u-12: Sabreena Gill b Pukhraj 6-0, 6-1; Nandinee Sharma b Aashima Garg 5-7, 6-3, 6-4

Girls u-16: Shilpa Naruka b Vrinda Narayan 6-0, 6-1; Bhavika Wadhawan b Sonali Bansal 6-4, 6-1.

Chandigarh, March 20
At least four villages of the Union Territory will have gram sampark services before the end of March. Services will be provided at one-stop centre on 12 government and business-related activities.

Confirming the development, director, Information Technology, M.S. Brar said: “Work on the gram sampark centres at Khudda Jassu, Raipur Khurd, Kaimbwala and Dhanas villages was complete and last-minute formalities were being completed before their commissioning later this month. To get parity in services between the rural and the urban population, the administration will have sampark centres in all 17 villages of the UT.”

The centres will provide majority of services available at the e-sampark centres, including electricity and water bill collection, passport applications, birth and death certificates, senior citizen cards, booking for community halls for functions, bus passes and stamp papers, besides others.

The administration is also working on adding the phone bill collection facility to these services.

They are thrashing out a deal with private companies on the issue. The administration is also likely to add new facilities, including the LIC policy facilities and selling revenue stamps.

The sampark centres have been touted as one of the biggest contributions of the administration in the recent years towards pubic welfare.

There are nine e-sampark centres currently running in the city i.e. at Sectors 10, 15, 18, 23, 40, 43 and 48, Mani Majra and Industrial Area.

The tenth centre is coming up at Sector 32. The city has also started the process of establishing jan sampark centres. The first one in the series has come up in Sector 20. The centres will handle queries of general public regarding procedures and forms.