Rajan Kashyap, Jai Singh Gill elected CLTA office bearers

Chandigarh, Aug 14 (UNI) Punjab State Information Chief Commissioner Rajan Kashyap and former Punjab Chief Secretary Jai Singh Gill were unanimously elected chairman and president, respectively, of the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) in the annual general body meeting held at the CLTA Stadium in Sector 10 here tonight.

Mr Kashyap was re-elected unopposed. Mr Gill was earlier vice-president of the association and replaced Justice S S Sodhi who was elevated to the position of patron.

Haryana Transport Commissioner M Ramsekhar and Vishwajeet Khanna were also unanimously re-elected secretary and treasurer, respectively. Seven more office-bearers were also re-elected unopposed.

After the meeting, Mr Kashyap said that the CLTA would be organising three international tournaments in 2007-08. The association will also conduct ITF Level Coaching Programme in November this year and National Coaching Workshop from December 7 to 9. More than 100 coaches and international experts/specialists are expected to attend the workshop.

Giving details of the international tournaments to be hosted by the CLTA, Mr Kashyap said that $ 15,000 ITF Men's Future Tennis Tournament will be held in January-February next year. This important tournament will be followed by ITF Junior Tennis Tournament in Jan-Feb.

The Indo-Pak Tennis Test is scheduled for November this year at the CLTA Complex. In the same month ITF Level Coaching Programme has been chalked out. Besides these top events, the CLTA will also be hosting tournaments for juniors, boys and girls.

Another result-oriented step discussed and adopted by the general house of CLTA is establishing the Players Development Fund and Infrastructure Development Fund. The members expressed satisfaction on the performance of the trainees and the lucrative incentive scheme of the CLTA for its players, coachces and other staff.

Seventeen-year old Vijayant Malik came for special praise for his outstanding performance in the domestic and foreign circuit. Malik has been selected by the All India Tennis Association as a prospective Indian player for representing India in the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi.

The CLTA has spent Rs 4 lakh on Vikayant Malik on his training and providing him international exposure. The AITA has sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for Malik on his training and providing competitions.

Davis Cupper Sunil Kumar Sipeya, Sanam K Singh, Shiva Sangwan, Sachin Kumar, Ashwani Kumar, Ajay Yadav, Parul Verma, Parminder Kaur, Iktesh Chahal and Noor Paul were the other CLTA trainees who have brought laurels to the Union Territory and the association.

The CLTA chairman disclosed that the association had paid 1.5 lakh to the players and Rs 2.50 lakh to the CLTA coaches and other staff.

Besides Director Coaching Gajendra Singh, the CLTA has on its roll ten coaches and same number of assistant coaches. The CLTA is imparting training to 450 players.

Mr Kashyap Said that the CLTA's Rural Scheme (CHART) for children from villages of Punjab and Haryana is also very encouraging. Sunil Sipeya, Vijayant Malik, Ashwani Kumar are among the CHART trainees. CHART 12 trainees are from Army Western Command.

Under the CLTA-Commonwealth Asian Countries tie-up seven players are getting residential training.

The following are the office-bearers: Rajan Kashyap (Chairman), Justice Sodhi (patron), Jai Singh Gill (president), M Rameshkar (secretary), Vishwajeet Khanna (treasurer).

Sarabjit Singh, SM Sharma, DS Bedi, VK Bhardwaj, I S Paul and Inderjit Singh Sandhu (vice-presidents).

Eexcutive members: Reet Mohinder Singh, AS Bains, Principal Harold Carver and Lt Col R S Cheema.

The executive committee has been authorised to co-opt other members for 2007-08.

UNI