HEALTH

Use water purifiers, fight contamination 
Manoj Kumar
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH: City residents may feel proud of having the highest per capita income but the matter of fact is that a majority of population is still drinking water, contaminated with impurities which can result in water-borne diseases, say manufacturers of high-end water purifier systems.

Till now, only a section of population was using water purifier systems in their residences and offices. Some even purchase packed water, supplied by various brands. Though a number of traders and MNCs have installed advanced water purifiers in their offices, the majority still use water directly from pipelines.

Dr C.M. Ghai, a physician, admitted, “a large number of people, especially the youth, are suffering from skin diseases like scab, dermatitis, itching, hair loss and dandruff due to the poor quality of water being supplied in the city.”

Even students, staying in hostels of Panjab University and colleges here, claimed that after living in the city for three to four years they have started loosing hair. Some of them also complained of stomach ailments and a lack of appetite due to a “different taste in water”.

Senior officials of the Public Health Department, however, said, “The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is supplying the best quality water. Samples are taken from time to time and every effort is made to ensure that the quality of water is fit for human consumption. It is only during the rainy season that people might get unclean water.”

The city gets its water supply from the Kajauli waterworks.

Mr Manish Jain, Deputy General Manager Sales, Usha Shriram Brita Pvt Ltd, said, “India is among those countries where people are still drinking water without purification. This results in various water-borne diseases, even among the relatively rich people. Only a section of people use water purifying systems.”

He said the corporation was making efforts to supply potable drinking water to the residents but because of vacuum in the pipelines, the water became contaminated with various substances. So, it was necessary to install water purifier system at the point of delivery of water.

He said the water could be contaminated with pesticides, fluoride, heavy metals like lead, mercury, arsenic and pathogenic microbes, depending upon the source of water.

There are different types of water purifiers available in the market, including storage type, digital and advanced systems, based on reverse osmosis technology. The reverse osmosis technology, claimed Mr Jain, provided the highest level of safety.

It made brackish water palatable, sweeter and tastier by reducing dissolved solids and hardness. Further, it eliminated pesticides, hazardous metal contaminants and disease causing microbes, he added.

Iraq’s loss is science’s gain
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 13
Iraq may have come under the US attack for suspected possession of weapons of mass destruction containing clestridium, but medical sciences is using these very dreaded micro-organisms to treat patients suffering from movement disorders and diseases like Parkinson and dystonia.

The PGI is the only institute in north India which is using the botulinum toxin injections to treat spasticity of muscles, stroke patients and dystonia patients. “The botulinum toxin is basically a micro-organism called clestridum, which can cause food poisoning and paralysis,” explained Dr C.P. Dass, Assistant Professor in the Neurology Department, PGI.

He stated that there were few qualified doctors who were treating patients with these injections in India. “So far we have treated more than 500 patients suffering from movement disorders and muscle cramps during the past seven years at the PGI, even though it provides only temporary relief, lasting three to six months,” informed Dr Dass.

The injection is being manufactured by only two companies in India, who supply it directly to doctors. These injections are also being used for cosmetic surgery but because of the high-cost factor there is very limited use of it in India.

Doctors said the botulinum toxin was so poisonous that even one gram could kill up to 100 persons. “A toxin like this has proved to be very effective as it is supposed to paralyse the overactive muscle,” explained Dr Dan Pirtosek, head of movement disorders unit in Slovania. He added that the toxin was being used extensively to treat Parkinson patients in the West.

Dr Pirtosek explained that being a paralysing agent the injection helps patients who have repeated contraction of a group of muscles like neck stiffness, eye dystonia and writer’s cramp.

The doctors attending the 52nd annual conference of the Neurological Society of India said there was very little awareness about movement disorders in India. Owing to poor awareness, patients suffering from movement disorders are sometimes referred to psychiatry clinics.

SPORTS

Sub-junior boxing meet gets under way
Our Sports Reporter

In the 39-48 kg, Mohit Sharma won his bout with ease. In the 48-51 kg, Mohit Sharma and Mohd Hamra won their respective matches. According to Mr C.K. Jerath, secretary of the Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association, tomorrow the events will begin at 2 pm.

Cricket tourney

A superb performance by Manoj Kumar, who scored 74 runs in 45 deliveries and also claimed three wickets for just 13 runs, enabled Punjab Financial Corporation beat Ericsson XI by 68 runs in the inaugural Canara Bank Cup Inter-Institutional Cricket Tournament organised by the District Panchkula Cricket Tournament at Sector 3 Cricket Stadium, Panchkula.

Earlier, PFC skipper Sushil won the toss and decided to bat first. Manoj Kumar played a briliant stroke of 74 runs, while Dinesh Gupta hammered 60 runs. PFC XI piled a total of 194 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the allotted 25 overs. Chasing the target, Ericsson XI could make 126 runs for the loss of nine wickets.

Brief scores: PFC XI:194 runs for nine in 25 overs (Manoj 74, Dinesh Gupta 60, Sandeep Mahajan 21; Sudesh Chopra 3 for 27, Sanjay 4 for 42, Naresh Dhingra 2 for 19). Ericsson XI: 126 runs for nine (Naresh Dhingra 38, Kailash 24; Manoj Kumar 3 for 13, Inderjeet 2 for 25, Sushil 2 for 21, Pankaj 2 for 19).

In the second match of the day, Inde-Dutch Systems, Chandigarh, beat Estate Office, Chandigarh, by 10 wickets.

Brief scores: Estate Office XI: 84 runs for two (Amarjot Singh 40 n.o., Rajnish 30; Deepak 2 for seven). IDS XI: 87 runs for no loss in just 6.3 overs (Bhavneet Singh 46 n.o., Rohit Walia 36 n.o.).

Knock-out cricket meet

SSP Network will hold the first inaugural SSP Network League-cum- Knock-Out Cricket Tournament from December 21 at the Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 32. According to Mr Sanjay, the first phase of the tournament will be played on league basis. Only eight teams will be selected for the knock-out stage.

Top two teams from each pool will qualify for the semifinal. Interested teams may contact Ph: 3227438.

Selection trials

The Commonwealth Youth Games in cricket for under 19 sectionwill be held in association with the Jawahar Lal Nehru Sports Trust beginning December 26 at three venues in India. As per information, a committee has been formed to conduct of the tournament. These include Mr Satpal, President, SGFI; Mr P.S. Chhabra, secretary general, SGFI; Ms Kavita Choudhary; Mr Prem Puri, vice-president, SGFI; among others.

Meanwhile, the selection trials for the Indian under 19 cricket team for the meet will be held on December 14 and 15 at Chhatrasal Stadium, Delhi. According to a spokesperson for the UT Education Department, players of those teams that attained first three positions at the last National School Games are eligible for the trials.

2,000 take part in selection trials
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 13
The three-day selection trials conducted by the UT Education Department, in which more than 2,000 sportspersons took part, concluded on Thursday at various coaching centres in the city. The trials were held to select teams in various disciplines for the different editions of the 49th National School Games, which would be held at various venues in the country during the next two months.

Mr Prem Puri, Vice-President of the School Games Federation of India, said games in swimming, badminton and lawn tennis began on Thursday at Surat, where as many as 22 teams are taking part. He said the games were inaugurated by the Governor of Gujarat. He, however, alleged that a rival faction of the SGFI was trying to hold parallel school nationals with a handful of teams, thus putting the career of a large number of children at risk.

He alleged that the holding of the 49th edition of the National School Games at Patiala, Talwandi Bhai and Kolhapur had created confusion among local players. He said as per information, a public school had tried to play mischief by sending its own school team whereas it was mandatory to have the approval of the UT Education Department before sending any team for the national meet.

He asserted that their department had never sent any team for either Kolhapur National Games held last month or the games held in Talwandi Bhai in Punjab. He got the information after reading reports in a section of press that Chandigarh teams were also taking part, which was not correct. He said they were sending the teams to the official National School Games, which would be organised as per the calendar released by the SGFI.

PU win soccer title

Panjab University, Chandigarh, retained the title in the North Zone Inter-Varsity Football Meet held at Pantnagar (Uttaranchal) from December 2 to 7.

Thirty-four universities from the north zone took part in the meet. Punjabi University, Patiala, finished runners-up, while GND University, Amritsar, got third place.

Road cycling meet today
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 13
The Chandigarh Road Cycling Championships for Boys and Girls will be held at Lake Club Circuit tomorrow at 7 am. The one-day meet would be organised by the Chandigarh Amateur Cycling Association.  During the meet, cyclists would be selected for the Ninth Road National Cycling Championships to be held at Kolkata from December 23 to 28.

The events to be held under different age groups: Senior Boys — 20 km Time Trial, 40 km Mass Start; Senior Girls — 10 km Time Trial, 3000m Mass Start; Junior (16 to 18 yrs) Boys — 10 km Time Trial, 30 km Mass Start; Girls — 30 km Mass Start, 10 km Mass Start; Junior (14 to 16 yrs) Boys — 5 km Time Trial, 20 km Mass Start; Girls — 5 km Time Trial, 5 km Time Trial; Sub-Junior (12 to 14 yrs) Boys — 5 km Time Trial, 5 km Mass Start; Girls — 5 km Time Trial, 5 km Mass Start.

Those interested may report for the races on December 14 at 7 am with date of birth certificate attested by the head of the institution.

Pulse Polio drive from Jan 4
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 13
There will be two Pulse Polio immunisation rounds in the city — January 4 to 6 and January 22 to 24 — as part of the countrywide drive. This was decided at a meeting of the steering committee.

As many as 461 booths will be set up in rural and urban areas, including 44 mobile teams. About 1.32 lakh children up to the age of 5 are expected to be administered the Polio vaccine.

ADMINISTRATION

Online IT refunds hit block
Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 13
The target set by the Income Tax Department to electronically send refunds of taxpayers directly into their bank accounts by the year-end is far from being achieved, thanks to procedural discrepancies.

In a number of cases, the refund advice of taxpayers sent by the Income Tax Department to banks was not being cleared as the encoding on the refund orders was not in accordance with the Magnetic Ink Code Recorder (MICR) facility being adopted by financial institutions.

The MICR facility enables computerised clearance of cheques. To clear the confusion, refund order books of the Income Tax Department had to be changed in accordance with the system.

A senior officer of the IT Department said members of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had been apprised of the problem and steps were being taken. It is learnt that IT officers had been told that the new system would be applicable from next year.

“With this in mind we have sent the refund advice to the respective banks of the tax payers without the specified coding. A professional handling the MICR system said banks could place the refund advice in an encoded envelope with the requisite information printed on it so that it could be cleared.

Mr Lal Bhadhur Gupta, president of the Income Tax Bar Association, said steps should be taken to avoid in convenience to taxpayers.

Sources said members of the CBDT had taken up the issue with the Finance Ministry.

After the completion of the computerisation process, the IT Department would be in a position to receive information on IT deposits made by taxpayers at any of the 10,500 branches of banks in the country. The banks are to be connected with the National Computer Terminal, a central server of the department, which would further be linked to various offices of the department.

Under the taxpayer-oriented reforms and steps to restructure the department, speedy clearance of income tax refunds was high on the agenda of the department. The department was planning to reduce the time period to pay the refunds from the present four months to two months.