Chandigarh, December 29
After witnessing 2007 full of sports activities, the sports authorities of the tricity are all set to welcome the coming 2008 with diary full of top-class international tournaments along with regular sports events.

The action is already on with the country’s topmost Premier Hockey League (PHL) gets underway at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42 here and would extend up to January 11. This is the fourth edition of the PHL and is being held here for the third time on the trot. Apart from that, many international events including, two international tennis tournaments, ICL (50-over) matches, the BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL) twenty 20 action and one Test match between India and Australia at PCA, are scheduled to be held in the area next year.

The second week of the New Year will see an international ITF Junior Tennis Tournament (Grade 3) from January 7 to 12 at Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA), Sector 10 here. But the biggest tennis action will be on in May-June with the organising of ITF Men’s Future Circuit Tennis ($ 15,000) Tournament at the same venue. In both tourneys, many international players will turn up to participate. Besides, a number of other junior tournaments, including talent series, super series and championship series, Asian junior ranking meets are scheduled to be held here next year. The February-March will belong to cricketing action as the breakaway Indian Cricket League has announced to hold the second edition of their league at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Sector 3 at Panchkula. The city got a big boost in sporting arena when the ICL officials decided to hold their inaugural 17-day Twenty 20 league at the stadium from November 30 to December 17 after revamping the venue.

Now, the ICL will hold full-fledged one-day matches league here, said the organisers. After Panchkula, the focus will turn to Mohali, where the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) authorities have been claiming to get minimum eight matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting this year along with a Test between India and Australia in October-November.

“It will be a cricket “Kumbh” for the cricket lovers as they can witness lot of top class cricketers across the world in action here. We are hopeful to host minimum eight matches of IPL here at the stadium in October. Besides, a Test match between India and Australia will take place here in the same month”, said MP Pandove, joint secretary, BCCI. For other disciplines, the Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA) will organise 2nd Chandigarh State Games in September 2008.

“We will try to hold competitions for all 37 disciplines, we have under our wings”, said Ravinder Talwar, Secretary General of COA.

Apart from these big events, annual features, including SN Vohra Gurmit Hockey Memorial tournament and JP Atray Cricket Tournament, being supported by the BCCI, state and district level sports meets by various associations will light up the sports scenario of the city.

Proposed sporting infrastructure in 2008: To improve the sporting infrastructure in the city, many new projects are coming up here to facilitate sportspersons further.

• A full-fledged sports complex (40,000 capacity) having advanced facilities, including floodlights, football ground, synthetic nine-lane trek for athletics, multipurpose hall for indoor games like basketball, gymnastics, boxing and wrestling centres, coming up at Sector 52.
• A centre of excellence (CoE) for hockey, being equipped with turf, floodlights, hostel facilities and other advanced paraphernalia will be set up at Sports Complex, Sector 42. A proposal of setting up turf at the oldest hockey ground, Sector 18 is also there.
• A state-of-the-art swimming pool with facilities conforming to international standards at Sector 42.
• Equestrian centre, covering 20-acre land at Sarangpur.

Chandigarh, December 29
Avipreet Singh beat Vaibhav Rattan by 6-3 in the opening day of the 3rd St. Peter Tennis Tournament being played at St. Peter School, Sector 37, here today.

Other results

Boys under-12 (1st Round), Avipreet Singh b Vaibhav Rattan (6-3), Paramveer Singh b Chaitanya (6-0), Himanshu Gupta b Guragam(6-0), Shraishth b Arshmeet Aulakh (6-2), Raghav Talwar b Sahil (6-1), Sukhman b Anumanat (6-2), Abhijeet Singh b Manjot Singh (6-3), Aditya Kansal b Vaibhav Aggarwal (6-4), Rahul Seth b Anubhav Negi (6-4).

Boys under-10 (1st Round) Mayuk Rawat b Jai Dosajh(6-1), Siddharth Kapoor b Ayush (6-1), Paramveer Singh b Vaibhav Rattan (6-0), Harnoor Inder b Pranav Malhotra (6-0), Abhijeet Singh b Aditya Kansal (6-0).

Boys under-10 (Pre-quarter-final) Sachin b Mayuk Rawat (6-10), Siddharth Kapoor b Tejashwar Kapoor (6-3), Harpreet Singh b Sohrab Singh(6-2), Paramveer Singh b Guragam (6-0), Sukhman b Harnoor Singh (6-5), Param Pun b Ashmeet Aulakh (6-2), Varundeep Singh b Vaibhav Aggarwal(6-3), Abhijeet Singh b Himanshu Gupta(6-3).

Girls under-12 (1st Round) Vanshika b Ravnoor Kaur (6-0), Parul Gupta b Sakshi (6-2), Naemat b Apoorva (6-0), Nandini b Sidhak(6-0), Hasan Dhanoa b Rahat Manrai (6-1), Sukrit b Jagisha (6-1), Nikita b Swarana Singh (6-1).

Chandigarh, December 29
PHL should be introduced for Women hockey players also, said Mamta Kharab, captain of the Indian Women Hockey team. Mamta came to the Hockey stadium to watch the match between Bangalore Hi-Fliers and Chennai Veerans of the ongoing Premier Hockey League.

Mamta Kharab, the caption of the Indian Women Hockey has played in the Common Wealth games and the Asian Games.

Talking about to the ongoing Premier Hockey League Mamta said, “PHL is an asset for the hockey players.

Apart from being an important league, PHL has created an interest and at the same craze in the mind of the people of the country.

With more and more publicity and television production, every player is looking to give his 100  per cent.

Moreover, foreign players being involved are giving a lot of benefit to the India hockey players.

Indian players learn a lot from the technique and different skills being used by these foreign players during the league,” opined Mamta.

While talking to our correspondent the captain said every player wants exposure and PHL is the right platform for this.

To promote women hockey, more and more national and international-level tournaments need to be organised.

PHL is a league that should be introduced for women hockey.

Elaborating further Mamta asserted, “Women hockey is not behind and nor weak, its not some particular areas that the players need to work on.

This league will certainly boast the moral of the players and will lead the game of hockey to new heights.

A movie like Chak De India has definitely helped a lot in promoting and motivating the game of hockey.

People who knew nothing about the game are now recognising it.

“I am supporting good hockey, who ever plays well will win,” the captain concluded with a smile. 

Chandigarh, December 29
Psychology is the key in boxing these days, if a boxer doesn’t have a positive attitude he can’t perform well, says O.P. Bhardwaj, who is the 1st Dronacharya Awardee of boxing.

The selector of Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) says, “These days boxers are given the best facilities and looking at these facilities, the pugilist should have the potential to generate results. Moreover, to improve the standard of boxing each and every person associated with boxing, including the coaches and officials must understand the responsibility they have.

Talking about his experience as a coach from late 60’s till 1990, he says, I use to dream about such facilities and infrastructure that the federation has now, but still the country is far behind as far as talent is concerned. If I am given good amenities, I will certainly give my 100 per cent.

Talking about the A.K. Mishra Memorial Boxing Championship, Dronacharya says “A.K. Mishra championship is a boon to boxers, because pugilist can’t find a better platform than A.K. Mishra in terms of exposure and the experience. Those who perform well in this championship and generate results get selected for the national camp. Elaborating it, Bhardwaj opines, “During this championship, boxers are selected for future events. IABF looks and selects boxers for international events from such championships.

Chandigarh, December 29
The selection criteria followed by the premier Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) here has come under a cloud with the institute allegedly following two sets of rules for the selection to the post of professor in various departments giving rise to anomalies in the seniority list.

Sources said during the recent interviews, there was an apparent discrepancy in the minimum number of years required for appearing in the interview. While in medicine and other medical specialities, two years' post-MD experience of the candidates was taken into account, in certain super-specialities, including cardiology, this experience was not taken into account leaving candidates fuming. A minimum of 14 years experience is must for selection as a PGI professor.

This coupled with the "deletion" of a clause, which could have helped "eligible" doctors to be considered for the post of professors, had been working against the interests of a section of the faculty. A large of faculty members have reportedly benefited from the clause which says "age and experience relaxable in exceptional cases on the recommendation of the selection committee".

In fact, in the case of Dr Yash Paul Sharma, associate professor in the department of cardiology, the deletion of the clause and "lopsided" selection criteria have worked against his interests. Dr Sharma had applied for the posts of the additional professor and professor.

However, despite the fact that Dr Sharma had the total experience of 15 years and 6 months, including two years' post-MD experience, at the time of the interview, he was not interviewed for the post of professor.

And the deletion of the "relaxation clause" has further deprived the eminent cardiologist of benefits. It may mentioned that of the four candidates who applied for the post of the professor, the other three did not appear for the interview.

Dr Sharma, along with the PGI director and head of the department of cardiology, Professor KK Talwar, take a major load of the work of the department, which had been plagued by a shortage of faculty at the senior level.

Recently, two senior faculty members - Dr Anil Grover and Dr H.K. Bali - put in their papers severely affecting the department's working. With the advanced cardiac centre set be functional early next year, the department needs faculty urgently at the professor-level, the sources added.

Meanwhile, Professor Talwar, when contacted, said the selection rules framed for the super-specialities and other departments might vary and they had been in operation for several years now.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Four minors ‘tortured’ at police post
Our Correspondent

Ambala, December 29
Residents of Jiwan Nagar, Ambala City, today protested against the illegal confinement and alleged physical torture of four minors by the Model Town police after they were picked up from the colony for alleged theft.

INLD leader Heera Lal Yadav, who led the protesters, said the police yesterday took four minors and a guardians of one of the children into custody to interrogate them in a theft case. Yadav alleged that the police kept the children in the police post throughout the night in bitter cold and tortured them.

Rinku, guardian of one of the children, told mediapersons that the children were beaten up mercilessly by policemen posted at the post.

The children were released only after residents of the area reached the police post and raised slogans against the police atrocity.

According to information, the police was investigating a case of theft, which took place in a house at Patel Nagar last Sunday.

The landlord caught the minors plucking guava from the house on Friday morning and informed the police. He expressed suspicion that the children were involved in the theft. SP K.V. Ramana said he was not aware of the incident. He said he would direct the DSP to look into the matter.

Ambala, December 29
Two motorcycle-borne youths shot at Ved Prakash, cashier of the HVPN, near Model Town at Ambala City today noon and made an unsuccessful attempt to snatch his cash bag. The cashier sustained bullet injuries on the right side of his chest.

According to information, Ved Prakash was on his way to the office after collecting the payment of electricity bills. When he was crossing Model Town, two motorcycle-borne youths stopped his bicycle and asked him to handover the money. When he refused to let go of the bag, they fired at him with a country-made pistol.

Ved Prakash was rushed to the civil hospital, Ambala City. According to hospital sources, the injured was out of danger. Ambala SP K.V. Ramanna visited Ved Prakash in hospital and assured his relatives that the assailants would be nabbed soon. The victim is a cashier at the Prem Nagar sub-divisional office of the HVPN (electricity department).

Later, the police launched a special search drive to nab the assailants. However, no clue was found till reports last came in.

Nangal (Ropar), December 29
The police is not registering FIRs of thefts in the area in an effort to keep the number of cases in the area under wraps.

Satman Singh, junior engineer in the BBMB, said his house in BBMB Colony was burgled on November 27, 2006. The burglary took place when he and his wife were out for work.

However, the police has not registered the case till date. “I have been running from pillar to post to get my complaint registered but none of the police officials listen to me. I have even written to the home secretary, but no action has been taken so far,” said Satnam Singh. Instead, the burglary has an oblique reference in another FIR. It just says that such theft took place in another house also.

Satnam Singh further alleged that there was no mention of the articles stolen from his house even in the coupled FIR. “If the articles stolen from my house are recovered from thieves, how can I claim them if the police has not registered a case?” asked Satnam Singh.

He also lamented that if an educated and connected person like him failed to get the case registered, how can poor people expect justice.

In order to expose the indifferent attitude of the police in theft cases, Satnam Singh started maintaining a file containing clippings of news items regarding theft cases being reported from the area.

His file is growing thicker with the passage of time. He claimed that many other complainants have met him and complained against the failure of the police to register cases of theft.

In some of the cases, police officials demanded bills of jewels stolen from the complainants to register cases.

In some localities of Nangal town, people themselves have taken up the onus of protecting their houses from thieves. They have started night patrolling to guard unattended houses in their localities. They have even apprehended a few thieves and handed them over to the police.

In one such case, residents of Rajnagar Colony caught a thief and handed him over to the police. However, they alleged that the police allowed the culprit to go scot free.