HEALTH

Health mela draws 1,300

Chandigarh, April 20
Thirty-three ultrasounds were carried out at a health mela organised by the UT health department at Dhanas village, near here, today.

Over 1,300 persons visited the camp. Out of the 192 patients who underwent mineral density measurement, 69 were found ostoeopaenic, while 70 were diagnosed with osteoporosis. Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd) inaugurated the health mela.

Children and pregnant mothers registered with anganwaris under the integrated child development scheme adjoining Dhanas were examined by a team of doctors to record their “basic parameters”.

Vitamin A syrup and iron tablets with folic acid (small/adult) were provided to anaemic children and pregnant women.

Patients were examined by specialist in various OPDs i.e. medicine, surgery, orthopedics, paediatrics, gynae and obstetrics, eye, ear, nose, throat, skin, dental and AYUSH (homeopathy and ayurvedic). Jean Rodrigues, who accompanied the Governor, distributed prizes among successful participants of a slogan and poster painting competition on female foeticide held earlier. — TNS

Chandigarh, April 20
Yet another local lad has done the city proud. 17-year-old Gursagar Singh Jassar has scaled the heights on wheels, making a mark at the international level. Gursagar made his presence felt in the World Championship held at Suzohow, China, in which 44 countries participated.

The three wins in-a-row, during the National Roller Skating Competition, held between January 24 to 28 last in Kolkata, is Gursagar's latest accomplishment, making him the first from North India to achieve this success.

“Gursagar is the first skater from all over North India, who has won three gold medals, one after another in the event,” said Sucha Singh Bandi, his father and coach.

Gursagar Singh Jassar, a Class XII student of DAV Public School, Sector 8, Chandigarh, has many honours to his credit in this sport. Earlier, he was a part of India's speed skating team at the 2005 World Speed Skating (Inline) Championship in China, where he took part in seven events and competed against top-ranked skaters.

“It was my maiden attempt and a good learning experience too. I was among the few Indian players who could complete the 43-kms marathon race,” said Gursagar.

Gursagar has won three medals, including one gold medal in the sub-junior section of the 39th National Roller Skating Meet held at Visakhapatnam in 2002. His other achievements include, one gold and two bronze medals in the 46th National School Games held at Panchkula in 2000.

Last year, Gursagar won a silver medal in the 41st National Roller Skating Meet in Andhra Pradesh and this year, in the 42nd National Skating Meet in Faridabad, he bagged a silver medal. He has been getting training under coach Sarabjit 'Shammi' for quads events while for inline skating, he is being trained by J.S. Dhaliwal.

But Gursagar's remarkable achievements have not brought a smile on his face. The reason is that there is no gradation for this sport and is not recognised by the Chandigarh administration.

“There are bank tracks and gradation status for this game in neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and even in Jammu and Kashmir, but lack of such facilities in Chandigarh have made skating enthusiasts a discouraged lot,” concluded Gursagar.

Chandigarh, April 20
Salahudeen Khan of Mauli Jagran Football Club will lead the Chandigarh under-21 team in the forthcoming 16th National Football U-21 Championship. The championship is scheduled to be held at Hardwani (Uttarakhand) from April 25 to May 5.

Other members of the team are: Amit Sharma, Lalit Joshi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vijay Bhatt, Ajay Bhatt, Jaswinder Singh, Vineet Kumar, Gursewak Singh, Sapinder, Mohak, Navjot Singh Gill, Gaurav Bagga, Tushar Batra, Manoj Kumar, Kabir Dhawan, Ankush Thakur, Naresh Kumar, Charanpreet Singh and Munish Sharma.

Officials: Sukhwinder Singh, Ramesh Bhatt and Mukesh Kumar. The team will leave for Hardwani on April 23 and play its first match on April 25.

Chandigarh, April 20
Olympian and ace shooter Abhinav Bindra has left for Sydney to join the Indian shooting team for the ISSF World Cup being held in Sydney.

Abhinav will shoot for India in the Air Rifle category on April 27 at the ‘All-Australian Shooting Competition’. After that, he will move for the ISSF World Cup scheduled to be held in Sydney on May 5.

On being asked about his prospects after a gap of eight months, he said, “At this juncture, I am only concerned about getting good scores.”

Abhinav, who immediately after becoming world champion in the air rifle category at Zagreb, Croatia, in July 2006, went off the shooting circuit due to a serious back injury. Since then, he has been under a strict rehabilitation plan supported by top German sports science specialists and physiotherapists.

Two and a half years ago, this youngest Rajiv Khel Ratna awardee made it to the finals in the Athens Olympics. And then did it again in the 49th ISSF World Championships at Zagreb, Croatia in July last year.

He emerged on the top by scripting a superb 597 in the preliminary round and shot a 102.1 in the final round among a strong field of 122 shooters from nearly 100 countries.

Amid top notchers, he clinched gold in the 10-meter air rifle event and a coveted Olympic ‘quota’ place.

It was his sheer determination, which prompted him to participate in the world championship, despite being down with fever and back ache. He had been suffering from chronic and acute back pain for the past three years.

There have only been two other instances of Indian shooters winning a world championship medal. Dr Karni Singh had won the trap silver in a World Championship in 1962 in Cairo and Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had bagged the bronze in the shotgun World Championship in Cyprus in 2003.

Abhinav is the fifth shooter after Gagan Narang (air rifle), Anjali Bhagwat (air rifle), Manavjit Singh Sandhu (trap) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (double trap) to book their Beijing Olympic quota places. 

Chandigarh, April 20
The partnership between Shanavaz (42 runs) and Amit (27) enabled Twenty20 CFI XI to beat Punjab in the Twenty20 (u-19) cricket tournament played at Cricket Stadium, Sector 16, here today.

Punjab won the toss and elected to bat first. Punjab scored 84 runs and were all out in 19.2 overs. Mandeep from Punjab scored 14 runs. Gurprit of CFI XI took three wickets for 16 runs.

Twenty20 CFI XI in reply scored 87 runs for no loss.

In another match played at the same venue, Haryana won the match by 80 runs against Rajasthan.

Haryana won the toss and elected to bat. They scored 169 runs for 5 wickets. Sanup and Om Prakash scored 57 runs each. Haryana won the match by 80 runs.

In the third match played at Vivek High School, Sector 38, a splendid knock of 82 runs by Atul helped Delhi beat Chandigarh by a massive score of 128 runs. Delhi won the toss and elected to bat. They scored 213 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. Atul scored 82 runs, Aman 49 and Parveen 41.

Chandigarh were all out for 85 runs in 17.2 overs. Tipu and Atul from Delhi took four wickets each. Atul was declared man of the match.

Chandigarh, April 20
K. Pradeep of Andhra Pradesh is the highest-ranked player in the boys under-16 and the under-14 singles category to get direct entry in the AITA Championship Series. The meet is being organised by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association at the Tennis Stadium in Sector 10, here from April 23 to 27.

CLTA chairman Rajan Kashyap said that 20 players in each category would get direct entry into the main draw on the basis of their AITA rankings. Four players in each category got wild cards while eight would move into the main draw through the qualifying rounds.

In the u-16 singles, Pradeep is ranked 49th with 66 points in AITA rankings and in the u-14 category, the Andhra Pradesh star is ranked 12th with 184.25 points.

Digvijay Singh Mehta of Himachal Pradesh is the second highest AITA ranked player in the fray in the u-16 and u-14 boys singles group. Digvijay is ranked 52nd in u-16 singles and in u-14 singles, he is ranked 25th.

Mandeep Singh Gill of Chandigarh is ranked 62nd.

Local girl Jaanesh M. Kaur will be the hot contender in the girls u-16 singles as she is 45th in AITA rankings.

Shraddha Sunil Dali of Maharashtra is the second-highest ranked player who will be seen in action. One ranked below her is Paridhi Ojha of Delhi with 74 points.

Namita Bal of Maharashtra is ranked 24th with 138.5 points in the girls under-14 singles followed by Tarranium Handa of Chandigarh and Smriti Joon of Haryana who are ranked 33rd and 37th, respectively.

Direct entries in main draw:

Boys u-16: K. Pradeep Reddy, Digvijay Singh Mehta, Mandeep Singh Gill, Manpreet Singh Chawla, Akshat Joshi, Maninder Singh , Sidhant Deka, Karanvir Singh, Harry Singh Amor, Bandi Pavan Suresh, K. Sai Siddharth, Siddharth Sharma, Ankit Chaudhari, Dinesh Goyal, Garry Singh Amor, Pulok Bhattacharya, Karan P. Kurup, Sajal Chaudhary, Bhardwaj Acharya, Eishaan Bahuguna.

Boys u-14: K. Pradeep Reddy, Digvijay Singh Mehta, Maninder Singh, Bhardwaj Acharya, Ajay Yadav, Sidhant Deka, Karan P. Kurup, Siddharth Sharma, Darp Anirudhha Milind, Gurinder Singh, Om Dalvi, K. Sai Siddharth, Nakul Rawal, Sajal Chaudhary, Shiva Tokas, Sudhir Tanwar, Sabareesh Hariharan, Arun Chopra, Karan Bidani, Manish Kumar.

Girls u-16: Jaanesh M. Kaur, Shraddha Sunil Dali, Paridhi Ojha, Baljinder Kaur, Tarranium Handa, Seeulee K. Upadhyaya, Sadhana Athreya, Prabhamrit Kaur, Tanvi Gupta, Smriti Joon, Mehak, Noor Paul, M. Spurthi, Namita Bal, Aakansha Punj, K. Supriya, Vidushi Bhall, Krittika Paul, Parminder Kaur, Aarzoo Malik.

Girls u-14: Namita Bal, Tarranium Handa, Smriti Joon, Seeulee K. Upadhyaya, Likitha Shetty, Krittika Paul, Aarzoo Malik, M. Spurthi, Ikttesh Chahal, Aakanksha Punj, Parminder Kaur, Vidushi Bhalla, Indu Punia, Harnoor Kaur Mann, T. Vignyatha Reddy, Shreya Malhotra, Bhavika Wadhawan, Kirandeep Kaur Kotade, Abhishekta Pandey, Ravnoor Kaur.

Paramveer Singh Toor and Navneen Shankar of Chandigarh, along with Gurinder Singh (Punjab), Kamal Kishore (Rajasthan) have been given wild card in the boys u-16 singles of the main draw in the AITA Championship Tennis Series which is scheduled to be conducted by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) at the Tennis Stadium, Sector 10, here from April 23 to 27.

Announcing the wild card entries, CLTA director-coaching Gajendra Singh said that Nandita Bal (Maharashtra), Harnoor Kaur Mann, Bhavika Wadhawan and Ikttesh Chahal (all from Chandigarh) have got wild card entries in the girls u-16 singles.

Saumya Sanghi of Delhi, Charvi Saxena, Saumya Chaudhary (both from Chandigarh) and Ankita Bhatia (Haryana) have also been given wild card into the girls u-14 singles main draw.

In the boys u-14 singles, Digvijay Singh Naruka, Uday Singh Mann, Nischay Rawal and Pankaj Kumar, all from Chandigarh, have been awarded wild card.

Panchkula, April 20
Rohit Bajaj clinched first place in the Rink Race-I (Time Trials) event in the boys above-14 years category during the first Bhavan Vidyalaya Open Skating Championship held at Sector 15 here today. Priti got the first place in the girls category.

The results:

Rink race-1 (Time Trials):

u-4 (boys): 1 Ayush, 2 Shorya;

4-6 (boys): 1 Aryan Kaushal, 2 Kartik, 3 Dhruv;

4-6 (girls): 1 Shirin Midha, 2 Rishika Gaur, 3 Khyati Jain;

6-8 (boys): 1 Akshit Bhala, 2 Balkirat, 3 Abhinav Gaur;

6-8 (girls): 1 Priyanka Gupta, 2 Simran, 3 Mirinal Vaishist;

8-10 (boys): 1 Sahil, 2 Ayush, 3 Shubhang;

8-10 (girls): 1 Tamanna, 2 Bhaya Bansal, 3 Tanu gaur;

10-12 (boys): 1 Hardeep Singh, 2 Saransh Chaudhary, 3 Kunal Bansal;

10-12 (girls): 1 Darshvinder, 2 Abha Gupta, 3 Monika;

12-14 (boys): 1 Sidhant Chopra, 2 Arun Kumar, 3 Hemant Goyal;

12-14 (girls): 1 Nikita Garg, 2 Bavan, 3 Celeste;

Above 14 (boys): 1 Rohit Bajaj, 2 Vishal Maini, 3 Parag Jindal;

Above 14 (girls) : 1 Priti, 2 Rajshree.

Chandigarh, April 20
Satluj Public School, Sector 4, Panchkula, will organise Satluj Hot Weather U-17 Cricket Tournament from April 25 for school teams only.

The tournament will be played on league-cum-knock-out basis. The players born on or after May 1, 1990, will be eligible to participate in the tournament. Entries must reach the school reception counter by April 23.

Forms can be collected from the reception counter. For more details, contact G.S. Sidhu on 94171-71587 or Sarpreet Gill on 94170- 88283.

Chandigarh, April 20
In order to prevent inordinate delayed in the execution of several projects of the Chandigarh municipal corporation, the UT administration has decided to allow corporation to get all future drawings, building plans, concept plans, etc. prepared through private architects within the purview of the architecture control, zoning plan and building rules.

A spokesperson for the corporation said some projects of corporation were getting delayed due to acute shortage of staff in the architecture wing of the administration.

All drawings, building and concept plans shall now be submitted to the chief architect, which is the competent authority for the approval of such projects.