Walkathon rakes in Rs 1.5L, all for underprivileged

 Cricket is the national intoxicant. Amid all the hype surrounding the sport, Batalavi’s hit upon a new idea. They decided to organise a sport which is little known. Dr Satinder Kaur Nijjar, a gynaecologist, educationist and social worker, all rolled into one, was the spirit behind the 21-day long walkathon. It’s a sport in which contributions made by the participants and sponsors are handed over to the underprivileged sections of the society. Unlike in cricket, there are no heroes, no champs and no glitzy trophies. The participants in the 10-90 years of age group took part. As things turned out, Palampur-based nonagenarian Chander Kanwal was the cynosure of all eyes. Her runs were a treat to watch. She was the favourite from the get-go and the lady lived up to the billing. She ran as if her skill was being expressed and her age left far behind. Summoning her reserves, she surged past her opponents with ease and grace. At times, the brain cried enough and the conflict wanted to take its toll. Her colleagues urged her to drop out but braving all odds Chander stood atop the podium. It was the triumph of the spirit more than the triumph of the body. As things turned out, she was inspired rather than intimated by pressure. An amount of Rs1.50 lakh was collected in cash. Dr Nijjar had identified scores of poor girls, many of them orphans, and handed over mobile sets to them. “Running is about consistency. Fall in love with the process and the results will follow naturally. The Covid-induced lockdown had made life sedentary. People had nowhere to go. Health was being affected hence we thought why not hold an event where people — young and old — would run. Life is short but running makes it seem longer,” said Dr Nijjar. She intends to hold a similar event the same time next year.

Highway to hell!

The steel town of Batala is grappling with many problems. One of them is related to traffic. The national highway (NH)-54 running from Pathankot till Amritsar branches off from the outskirts to the inner parts of the town. At the bypass, accidents occur every second day. There is a traffic post at the bend but it’s of little use. Now, residents led by Jagjot Singh Sandhu have written to the Executive Engineer (XEN), Construction Division, Batala, to sort out things. The XEN, in turn, has shot off an SOS to the project director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which is the agency responsible for maintaining the NH. “The road leading into the city from the NH is a blind spot. It has been badly planned and even more poorly executed. People will continue to lose their lives and limbs if corrective measures are not taken. We have also approached MP Sunny Deol but to no avail. Since the NHAI is a central government agency, the MP’s intervention is called for immediately,” said Sandhu.

No funds, judo centre could be knocked over

The much-famed Shaheed Bhagat Singh JFI Judo training centre has fallen on hard times. Over the last two decades it has produced one Olympian, 60 international and over a 100 national-level judokas. Yet another player, Jasleen Saini, is on the cusp of greatness. He has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics although a formal declaration to the effect is yet to be made by the International Judo Federation (IJF). He has qualified through the complex Continental Quota. The centre has become a conveyor belt for producing top drawer judokas, who are later absorbed by the Punjab Police, BSF, CISF and ITBP. However, coach Amarjit Shastri is a dejected man these days as the finances required to run the centre have dried up and the future seems to be heading deep down the rabbit hole. Saini wants to go to Japan for a training stint but the son of a lab attendant may not be able to travel because of financial constraints. Now, Shastri has written to the Punjab Sports Department to release funds for the same. The coach has also met Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi but was not happy with the treatment. “The minister does not even know what judo is all about. He is a shooter and thinks every sport has something or the other to do with shooting,” a judoka commented.