Chief referee AM Lele put down the failure to confirm Railway entries to a ``communication gap''. Till now, no intimation from the Railways has been forthcoming, although players have arrived at the venue, mostly from Lucknow where the Northern India event was held a few days ago.

Assistant referee KRV Rao said the organisers would accept every entry of players who have made it to the venue irrespective of whether of not the Railways, as an entity, have sent in formal entry.

While fifth-ranked Montu Ghosh is a doubtful starter at the event being held at the Clairiant Workshop compound at Thane, Pune's top-ranked Bhushan Thakur has confirmed his entry in the championships after having arrived here today from Lucknow.

The player ranked fourth on the national list will join his Railway team-mate Ganesh Kundu in the men's singles action that commences laterthis evening with the qualifying rounds. They will be joined by Nupur Santra who enjoys a national ranking of seven.

Meanwhile, action got under way in the sub-junior, girls' and cadets' section. Maharashtra's Rucha Datar got the better of state-mate Bella Mehta in the sub-junior girls' second round qualifier, winning 20-22, 21-19, 22-20.

Another keenly-fought encounter in the same round saw another Maharashtra girl, Dharitri Dalvi rally to beat Karnataka's Smita Patankar 17-21, 21-17, 24-22.

In the cadet girls' second round qualifiers, Dharitri Dalvi beat state-mate Juili Inamdar after dropping the first game. Dharitri won 12-21, 21-19, 21-14.

Salil Bhide of Maharashtra made the cadet boys' third round beating Kayur Karandikar also Maharashtra 23-21, 17-21, 23-21.

The championships are being jointly sponsored by Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Life Insurenace Corporation (LIC) and State Bank of India (SBI).

Results (all qualifying rounds)

Boys (sub-junior, first round): Rakesh Biswas (Bng) btArnav Dey (Mah) 21-15, 23-25, 21-16; Sandeep Goon (Bng) bt Rishi Malik (Mah) 22-10, 21-17; Nikhil Bhandari (Mah) bt Rohan Khisti (Mah) 21-19, 21-12; Nihar Thakkar (Mah) bt Swapnil Lele (Mah) 21-7, 21-15; Mahipal Gohil (Guj) bt Kedar Karandikar (Mah) 21-15, 27-25; Abhinav Kumar (Bhr) bt M Kelkar (Mah) 21-7, 21-13; T Nikhil (TN) bt A Chadha (Mah) 21-16, 22-20; Deepankar Saha (Bng) bt Sagar Devrukhkar (Mah) 21-0, 21-5; Amarnath Das (Bng) bt Alok Sakpal (Mah) 21-9, 21-12; Manish Singh (Bhr) bt Keyur Dharamshi (Mah) 21-2, 21-4.

Cadets (second round): Satish Kukar (Bhr) bt Aditya Karkhanis (Mah) 21-12, 22-20; Salil Bhide (Mah) bt Kayur Karandikar (Mah) 23-21, 17-21, 23-21; Darpan Katoke (Mah) bt Gaurav Deval (Mah) 21-7, 21-5; Pratik Kelkar (Mah) bt Mayuresh Kelkar (Mah) 21-9, 21-14; Ravi Shah (Mah) bt Nihar Thakkar (Mah) 21-17, 21-5; NB Shikh (Mah) bt Amod Tilak (Mah) 21-16, 21-12.

Girls (sub-junior, second round): Ausee Saha (Bng) bt Nupur Gaidhani (Mah) 21-3, 21-3; Rucha Datar (mah) bt Bella Mehta (Mah)20-22, 21-19, 22-20; Dharitri Dalvi (Mah) bt Smita Patankar (Knt) 17-21, 21-17, 24-22; Rita Dasgupta (Bng) bt Sonam Bajaj (Mah) 21-10, 21-16; Niraj Kudkay (Mah) bt P Avsarkar (Mah) 21-17, 12-21, 21-11; Neha Arora (Mah) bt Arya Mehta (Mah) 21-9, 21-14; Sayali Kadam (Mah) bt Poonam Thapar (Mah) 21-6, 21-9; Neha Gabada (Mah) bt Sonali Desai (Mah) 21-7, 21-10; Juili Inamdar (Mah) bt Ruta Deshmukh (Mah) 21-9, 21-7; Smruthi Ram (TN) bt Sneha Keshav (Mah) 21-13, 21-19; A Tanksale (Mah) bt N Kulkarni (Mah) 21-9, 21-19.

First round: Anjana Basak (Bng) bt Soman Bajaj (Mah) 21-15, 21-9; S Sangeeta (TN) bt Aparna Kulkarni (Mah) 21-11, 21-11; Varda Bal (Mah) bt Minu Roy (Ker) 21-14, 21-15; Munmun Basak (Bng) bt Sayali Kukday (Guj) 21-15, 21-17; Ruhi Chawla (Mah) bt Varsha Solanki (Guj) 24-22, 21-14; J Swarna (TN) bt Aditi Tanksale (Mah) 21-10, 21-8; Debrati Sarkar (Bng) bt Neha Arora (Mah) 21-9, 21-9; Sayali Khandekar (Mah) bt M Lavanya (TN) 21-18, 21-13.

Cadets (2nd round): Nida (MP) bt N Raj (Ker) 21-15, 16-21,21-16; Dharitri Dalvi (Mah) bt Juili Inamdar (Mah) 12-21, 21-19, 21-14; Shruti Ram (Mah) bt N Kukday (Mah) 21-11, 21-13; Shweta Joshi (Mah) bt Priya Gabada (Mah) 21-12, 21-5.