Nigerian held with smack
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 12 — The police arrested a Nigerian national, Awa Maxwell Austin Dick, putting up in Sector 38 here yesterday and seized 15 gm of smack from him.

A case under the NDPS Act has been registered.

Killed: A cyclist, Gurmukh, was knocked down by a Gypsy near House No 2 in Sector 19 here last night.

According to the police, the seriously injured cyclist was admitted to the PGI where he later died.

The Gypsy driver has absconded and a case has been registered.

Eve-teasing: The police has arrested Shish Pal, a resident of Rampur in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, on the charge of eve-teasing from the PGI.

A case has been registered.

Liquor seized: The police has arrested Raju, a resident of Bapu Dham Colony and recovered 40 nips of whisky from his possession.

A case under the Excise Act has been registered.

Car stolen: Mr Surinder Singh, a resident of Sector 21, complained to the police that his car (CH01-Y-4522) has been stolen from his residence.

The police has registered a case.

Arrested: A woman, Hazira, has been arrested by the police on the charge of begging from Sector 43.

A case has been registered.

PANCHKULA

Chain snatched: A chain-snatching incident was reported from the Mansa Devi Complex on Sunday evening. In a case registered by Mr Dheemal Verma, a resident of house No 210, Sector 4, Mansa Devi Complex, it was alleged that three car-borne youths, including two women, snatched her chain from within the complex. By the evening, the police traced the car used by the culprits in the crime. Further investigations in the case are on.

PINJORE

Liquor seized: The police seized 250 pouches of country-made liquor from the possession of Maniram at Subhashnagar. He was carrying the pouches in his scooter. He was arrested and a case under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act has been registered under.

Fest for PG colleges
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 12 — For the first time, Panjab University will organise a two-day youth festival exclusively for colleges running post-graduate courses, said Mr Iqbal Singh Dhillon, Director of the Youth Welfare Department, here today.

The festival, to be organised by the local Dev Samaj College, Sector 36, will be conducted on December 15 and 16.

Literary items are scheduled for the first day and will be held on the college campus. The other events include creative writing, poetry and short story writing. Rangoli, clay modelling and poster making contests will also be held.

The competitions on the second day will be held at Tagore Theatre. Events include light vocal, orchestra, classical dance, drama and bhangra.

MCM, SD Club win kho-kho titles
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 12 — MCM Club-36 in the girls' section and SD Club-32 in the boys' section, emerged winners in the seniors' category of the Chandigarh State Kho-kho Championship which concluded here today at Sports Complex in Sector 42. The two-day meet was organised by the Chandigarh Kho-kho Association.

In the girls' final, MCM Club-36 defeated GGS Club-26 by two points, while in the boys' section, SD Club-32 beat DAV Club-10 by one point.

Guru Harkishan Public School, Sector 38, got third place in the girls' section, and Lions Club-35 stood third in the boys' section.

Results: Girls — MCM Club-36 b Guru Harkishan School-38 by three points; GGS Club-26 b GMSSS-37 by one point; Guru Harkishan School-38 b GMSSS-37 by five points; and Guru Harkishan School-38 b GHS-35 by five points.

In the boys' section, SD Club-32 b Golden Club by ten points; DAVC-10 b Lions Club-35 by one point; and SD Club-32 b DAVC-10 by two points.

Gymkhana win: Gymkhana Cricket Club won a thrilling final by two wickets, beating Godrej Cricket Club in the Defence Cash Prize Cricket Tournament organsied by Defence Cricket Club at Kharar, near here, today.

GCC won the toss and elected to bat first. Arpinder Bedi and Rajesh were involved in a partnership of 72 runs with the former making 31 runs and the latter 37 runs.

GCC scored 136 runs and were all out. In reply, Gymkhana Club lost eight wickets but won in 29 overs. Kamal Walia made 32 runs for Gymkhana Club.

Brief scores: GCC — 136 runs all out (Rajesh 37, Arpinder Bedi 31, Virat Singh 23, Gurinder Saini 18, Rajan Munjal 3 for 21, Munish Arora 2 for 20, Dinesh Rana 2 for 24).

Gymkhana XI — 137 runs for eight in 29 overs (Kamal Walia 32, Harpal Singh 22, Munish Arora 18, Madan Lal 3 for 11, Anil Chaudhary 2 for 21, Virat Singh 2 for 22).

School cricket: Paragon Senior Secondary School, Phase X, SAS Nagar, defeated its Sector 71 branch by 28 runs today in the first SAS Nagar Inter-School Cricket Championship being played at MCA Ground for the Sardar Manohar Singh Majithia Trophy. The tournament is being organised by the Mohali Cricket Association here today.

Brief scores: Paragon Senior Secondary School, Phase X — 160 runs all out (Komal 20, Nikhil 20, Amit 19, Harpreet 5 for 26, Maninder 2 for 31, Mandeep Singh 2 for 41); Paragon Senior Secondary School, Sector 71 — 133 runs all out (K. Preet 41, Hardeep Singh 23, Komal 3 for 28, Nikhil Tiwari 3 for 2).

St Xavier's win: St Xavier's Senior Secondary School won its match against St Kabir Public School, Sector 26, today, by virtue of losing lesser number of wickets, in the ICSE Schools (Chandigarh region) Cricket Tournament being played here at St Xavier's School. St Xavier's will now meet St Stephen's School, Sector 45, in the final to be played on Tuesday.

St Xavier's made 121 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs with Munish Malhotra scoring 30 unbeaten runs. In reply, St Kabir scored 121 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs. Manjit was the highest scorer with 25 runs, followed by Shekhar who scored 22 runs and was unbeaten.

Need to curb drug abuse

The drug abuse problem has become a global challenge today. In recent years, India has become a major consumer of different kind of drugs. This problem is prevalent in all segments of society, particularly adolescents, slum-dwellers and transport workers. The threat of drug abuse has assumed significance on account of rise in intravenous drug use, leading to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

A victim of drug abuse/addiction not only causes physical and psychological impairment to his body but also ruins his own family and destroys social relationships.

According to studies, most addicts start taking drugs out of sheer curiosity to have fun and pleasure, often under the influence of friends. Some take them to overcome boredom, fatigue, depression or frustration. Lack of affection or love from the immediate family members is also one of the reasons of drug abuse.

To check this menace, non-governmental organisations associated with the welfare of society must come forward and initiate awareness and rehabilitation programmes. Moreover, parents and teachers can also play a vital role in conquering this menace by keeping themselves interested in their children’s activities and by sharing their problems with responsibility.

Sanjay Khurana
Chandigarh

Welcome step

Apropos of ‘Greenery and grandeur put to the sword’ (Chandigarh Tribune December 3, 1999), I fail to understand what greenery and grandeur your correspondent is talking about. Even the most cursory of glances around would have revealed only a few, randomly and sparsely planted shrubs of bougainvillaea. Their sick and straggly remains are unkempt, half-shrivelled and nearly dried. These bougainvillaea shrubs that are being presently maintained on the road dividers are an impractical and dangerous idea.

Plants demand frequent watering, manuring and hoeing to have a luxuriant growth to be able to serve purposefully as hedges and be effective as road-dividers. Besides, as bougainvillaea grow quite fast, they constantly require regular trimming. Their maintenance being very labour-intensive, these appear unsuitable for the purpose in the present context. By nature it is thorny. If there is delay in trimming it, its vagrant/wanton branches pose a risk of hitting, especially scooterists on the face/in the eyes and thus can cause serious accidents.

Last year, in its effort to cut down on the number of road accidents, the Chandigarh Administration put up barbed wire on the road-divider in front of the sabzi mandi. It was trying to dissuade people from darting across Madhya Marg. It took unscrupulous elements just a day or so to uproot the stakes that were erected to put up the wire. Then the authorities experimented with erecting iron grills on the road-divider from the transport intersection to the railway bridge crossing. It was a huge relief as far as commuters are concerned because the risk of accidents was substantially reduced.

That the Chandigarh Administration has finally woken up to the reality and recently undertaken to make Madhya Marg safer by erecting iron grills on the road divider is indeed laudable.

It is therefore, difficult to understand why your correspondent has criticised the Administration for showing concern for the masses in this regard. After all, is it hard to imagine the number of lives that will be safeguarded by erecting the grill along the road-divider? So many lives are needlessly lost on this busy road everyday, just because someone darts across it all of a sudden.

The good work should be extended along the full length of the road.

Vivek Khanna
Panchkula

Smart card

The Chandigarh Administration has decided to computerise the UT Registering and Licensing Authority Department. It is a good move that will save precious time of public and make the process fast, transparent and efficient. It will be done by “Smart Card”, containing digital data about the licence holder and the vehicle. Chandigarh will be the second area in India after Gujarat to introduce this hi-tech scheme.

Karun Saini
Bartana