Petition against Sharif for cash awards to Pak cricket team

Saturday, April 2, 2011, 0:00 [IST]Lahore, Apr 2: A lawyer asked a Pakistani court to direct authorities to take action against Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for announcing a cash prize of Rs 500,000 for each member of the national cricket team players from the public exchequer.

Javed Iqbal Jaffrey filed a petition in the Lahore High Court asking it to restrain Sharif from "misusing public money". He said Sharif should give such prizes to players from his own funds as he had no right to waste public money.

Another petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court seeking action against Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt, captain Shahid Afridi and players Misbahul Haq, Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal for their role in alleged match-fixing in the World Cup.

The petition contended that the way the Pakistan team "surrendered" the semi-final to India showed it was "fixed".

PTI

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Windies launch strong reply against India

Sunday, March 20, 2011, 20:16 [IST]Chennai, March 20: The Windies were in the middle of a robust riposte chasing India's 268 all out as they had reached 132/2 in 25 overs. The side from the Caribbean was on course for victory thanks to an admirable stand of 57 between Darren Bravo (22) and an unbeaten Devon Smith (70*) who was motoring along with Ramnaresh Sarwan at 25 overs. R Ashwin and Suresh Raina were the only two bowlers to get a wicket.
Off-break Ashwin opened the bowling for India, but was unable to make any immediate impact as the West Indies openers began their side's innings effectively. Devon Smith took two fours off Zaheer Khan, one in the 2nd and one in the 4th over, while Kirk Edwards knocked a boundary off Ashwin in the 3rd. In between, Edwards was actually run-out by Virat Kohli, but the umpire didn't refer it upstairs and the batsman survived. Harbhajan Singh was greeted into the attack by a huge six over long off from Edwards. But in the very next over, Ashwin had the same batsman trapped in front from a decision that was referred for review. Edwards was on his way for 17 and the Windies were 33/1 in 6.2 overs.

Darren Bravo and Smith took their side to past 50 in the 12th over. In the following over, Bhajji bowled four byes after which Smith smacked him for a four. The momentum kept swinging the Windies' way as Bravo lofetd Aswin for a six and then swatted him for a four as his the visitors climbed to 73/1 in 13 overs.

But Suresh Raina then got the breakthrough in his first over when he had Bravo caught by Bhajji at long on for 22 off 29 balls. The Windies were 91/2 in 17 overs. In the 19th over, Smith smacked Rain for a four and then ran a single off him to notch up a half century off 64 balls. In the same over, the batting duo had brought up the Windies' 100.

Yuvraj Singh was brought on to bowl in the 21st over and was straight away cut for four by Smith who carted the same bowler for a six in his next over. The Windies had reached 132/2 in 25 overs.

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LPG shortage:FIRs registered against erring dealers in Haryana

Chandigarh, Mar 15: As part of a campaign launched in the state to check black marketing of LPG cylinders and to ensure their regular supply, the Haryana government today said it has checked the premises of 149 LPG dealers and got four FIRs registered against erring dealers.

Food and Supplies Minister for the state HS Chatha in a written reply to a question in the state Assembly, said action against 15 other erring dealers has also been recommended to the oil companies.

Fine has been imposed on the dealers who have been found violating the standards of Weight and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985.

The minister said 61 FIRs had also been registered against commercial establishments and motor vehicle owners for misusing domestic LPG cylinders, besides seizing 2,181 domestic gas cylinders.

Two meetings had also been held with the State level officers of and oil and gas companies on Jan 21 and Feb 9, 2011 for monitoring the shortage of gas cylinders, he said.

LPG shortage was reported in the State in Nov last year after which the matter was taken up with the State level coordinator of the Companies.

"Decision was taken to launch a special campaign for checking of gas agencies and petrol pumps to find out irregularities, while directions had been issued to all the District Magistrates and District Food and Supplies Controllers to undertake checking through a team of officers including representatives of oil and gas companies," he added.

Meanwhile, in another written reply to a question asked by INLD's Ajay Singh Chautala, Technical Education Minister, Mahender Pratap informed the House was informed the number of technical colleges approved in the private sector from 2005 till date is 446.

However, while the sanctioned seats have been going up each year, the number of admissions secured has gone down considerably.

In 2005-06, as against sanctioned intake of 1,800 seats in the technical colleges in the private sector, the number of admissions secured was 1,736 while in 2010-11 thousands of seats remained vacant as against sanctioned intake of 57,530 seats, the admissions made were only 39,123, Pratap said.

PTI

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