The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

PGI to demand Rs 400 cr from Centre
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2
The PGI is likely to demand more than Rs 400 crore from the Government of India for its projected requirement for the tenth five-year plan starting from April 2002.

In a meeting chaired by PGI Director and attended by Medical Superintendent, Joint-Medical Superintendent, Superintendent Hospital Engineer, a representative of the Financial Advisor, discussions were held today to finalise the demand.

Sources said the demand had been reached at after totalling the estimates provided by various department heads. Initially it was put as high as Rs 1,000 crore but efforts were made bring that to a more realistic level.

The Director had held a meeting with some of the heads of department last week to discuss their projected estimates.

Sources said the major chunk of the estimated demand would be spent on the planned projects which included the upcoming advanced Eye Centre, the second phase of the advanced paediatric centre, advanced trauma centre, and the cardiac centre.

Assessment and collection of estimates from the PGI’s 45 departments has been going on for the past two months.

The demand figure is likely to be finalised in another meeting scheduled to be held tomorrow.

Gearing up to meet the AIDS threat
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2
More than 20,304 cases of AIDS have already been reported to the National AIDS Control Organisation till March 2001’’according to Prof H.M. Swami, Head, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital Sector 32.

Dr Swami was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day training programme on HIV/AIDS, which started at the GMCH here today. More than 30 junior doctors are participating in this workshop organised by the GMCH in collaboration with the State AIDS Control Society.

Inaugurating the programme, the Director Principal GMCH, Dr S.B.S. Mann stressed the need to create awareness about AIDS and prepare healthcare workers to protect themselves against the HIV epidemic and equip hospitals against the dreaded disease.

Dr Swami, who is the nodal officer of the training programme informed that a series of such trainings would be conducted for junior doctors and paramedical staff of GMCH. He also stressed on imparting sex education in schools and discussed the social consequences of an AIDS epidemic.

Dr Varsha Gupta from the Department and Microbiology, GMCH, highlighted the laboratory tests and HIV testing strategies available at the hospital. Dr Atul Sachdeva, Head of the Medicine Department, explained about diagnosing AIDS cases and the action to be taken by doctors and paramedical staff following exposure to AIDS.

Dr Surjit Singh, Additional Professor of Pediatrics, PGI discussed AIDS treatment and informed that Tuberculosis was making a comeback and rising as a result of HIV infections. Dr Bhushan Kumar, Professor and Head, Department of Dermatology, PGI, mentioned that prevalence of HIV infection is almost 8 to 10 times greater in patients in which it has been sexually transmitted. Its management based upon symptoms called ‘‘syndromic approach’’ should be adopted in fact to treat all types of STDs at peripheral health institutions.

Dr A.S. Bawa, Professor and Head, Department of Surgery, GMCH, stressed upon the need to follow simple universal precautions to protect medical and paramedical staff.

Dr Vikas Bhatia, Coordinator of the training programme, informed that by training all medical and paramedical staff of GMCH, they would be able to take adequate precautions and handle the HIV/AIDS patients without fear.

Dr N.M. Sharma, Dr J.S. Thakur, Dr Vikas Bhatia and Dr Benani Poddar will deliver lectures as part of the programme tomorrow.

SPORTS

Carrom to make debut in school nationals
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 2
Carrom will make a debut in the school nationals, when the city plays host to the 47th National School Games for the first time, the carrom event in the under-19 boys and girls section is to be held from November 4 to November 7 at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45. The four-day meet is being organised by the UT Education Department in collaboration with the Chandigarh Carrom Association under the aegis of the School Games Federation of India. Confirming the same, Mr Mahesh Sekhri, Secretary, CCA, said that the sport would get a filling with its entry at the national school level. He said about 10 technical offcials will be provided by CCA to assist officials of the UT Education department. It may be recalled that earlier, chess was also included in this year’s national school sports calender.

Meanwhile, a 12-member UT school carrom team will represent Chandigarh in the above mentioned meet.

The teams are: Girls—Nabhi Sahni, Puneet Lamba, Shikha Nanda, Pallavi Piplani, Nidhi and Shikha Thakur.

Boys — Ramanpreet Pahwa, Taranpreet, Dhruva, Sumit, Anu Papneja and Ravinder.

DAV School win

DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, outplayed New Public School, Sector 18 by 71-49 in the final of the under-19 boys final of the fourth Rao Jai Singh Memorial Basketball tournament-2001 played here at New Public School, Sector-18. The half-time score was 32-22 in favour of the ultimate winners. Rajinder Pal and Balraj were the chief architects for the DAV team win who scored 31 and 25 points respectively, while for the losers, Munish and Navdeep netted 17 and 12 points respectively.

Bhangu felicitated

G.S. Bhangu, who was recently awarded the coveted Dronacharya award in hockey retired from active service at National Institute of Sports, Patiala. Bhangu had held several assignments such as being the national hockey coach for both the men’s and women’s teams during the past few years. Bhangu said it was the late Dhyan Chand hockey wizard and Dronacharya awardee, Balkishan Singh, to whom he would always reman indebted as he had helped him in moulding his career. A function to honour Mr Bhangu was held at Patiala last evening where he along with Deepak Thakur, the recent hero of the Indian Junior hockey team in the Junior world Cup victory at Australia and a trainee at Centre of Excellence at the Patiala and his coach, Inderjit Singh Gill, were also felicitated.

Structure demolished
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2
A team of the Enforcement Wing of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) today demolished a freshly constructed structure in a flat in Sector 44 this morning.

Sources said construction had been completed just a few days ago. The CHB team smashed the roof of the structure and then pulled it down from the sides. As per recent instructions, all new constructions have to be demolished. The CHB flats owners have been seeking relaxation and have been asking the CHB to regularise some of the encroachments, especially those which are not on government land.

Concern over reduction in power allocation
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2
The UT Administration today raised the issue of reduction of power allocation to Chandigarh with the Union Minister of State for power, Mr Jaiwanti Mehta at a meeting here today. The UT Administration told the minister that share of Chandigarh had been reduced by about 50 per cent in the allocation.

The UT would require 190 MW of power to meet the requirement of load during the winter season.