The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

Make registration of debilitating diseases mandatory: Dr Garg
Bipin Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
Registration of all debilitating diseases should be made mandatory, said Dr Sudhir Kumar Garg, head of the Orthopaedic Department, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32.

This would not only ensure that the health profile of the population was readily available, but also help the patients to have a case history at hand, thus helping them and the doctors across the country to treat a patient at any health institution, he said.

Just like as dengue and TB, cancer patients should also be registered at regional and national levels. A policy to cover such patients was required, said Dr Garg.

He said that the cure rate in bone-tumour cases has tremendously increased in last three decades. In the 1970s, the cure rate was less than 10 per cent whereas it has increased to 75 per cent in the Western countries at present.

The advent of modern chemotherapy has made a huge difference in the survival and cure of these patients. These techniques have helped in controlling the disease locally as well as distant metastasis.

Trained at the Bone Tumour Service of the Royal Orthopedic Hospital, Birmingham, one of the leading centres in the world for the treatment of bone cancer, Dr Garg introduced latest techniques of managing bone cancer including limb sparing surgery at GMCH about seven years ago.

While speaking to the Tribune, he said, “The most exciting development was the advent of limb sparing surgery. Previously, most patients with bone cancer involving limbs were treated with amputations. In Western countries, in more than 80 per cent of such patients, the infected limb can be saved using various techniques of limb reconstruction after excision of the affected part of the bone.”

This has been largely possible due to the availability of custom-made endoprosthesis and other methods of reconstruction.

However, the picture is not so bright in India. Most of these patients are diagnosed at a much more advanced stage of the disease. Most of these patients end up with amputations.

Another limiting factor is the cost of treatment. Since both chemotherapy and custom-made endoprosthesis are expensive, poor patients tend to dropout resulting in incomplete treatment and poor prognosis, he said.

Since imported custom-made endoprosthesis was too expensive and Indian-made prosthesis was not commercially available at that time, Dr Garg had to design his own prosthesis for limb sparing surgery. The technique has been used successfully in many patients.

He said that the Department of Orthopaedics, GMCH, has been figuring among the leading centres in this region offering modern treatment for bone cancer.

Recently, a complex and rare spine surgery was carried out at the GMCH on a young patient. In this patient, four vertebrae of the neck were destroyed due to tuberculosis that was causing progressive neck deformity and weakness of all four limbs. All diseased vertebrae were removed and gap was reconstructed. Now the patient has made full recovery and is able of walk independently, he said.

City coach develops multi-shuttle machine
G.S. Paul
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
Justifying the old adage “Necessity is the mother of invention”, Surinder Mahajan, a city-based National Badminton coach, who is presently posted at SAI, NIS, Patiala, has invented a ‘Manual Multi-shuttle Machine’. This triple ‘M’, as Mr Mahajan calls it, will prove to be very useful for Badminton players and coaches.

Elated over his success, he said, “In this era of speed game, almost in every part of the world, specially in Malaysia, China and Indonesia, top coaches are stressing on multi-shuttle exercises. These exercises on the priority list in their training programmes.”

The triple ‘M’ machine will play a key role in one’s all-round development and perfection in the game. In the advance training programme, the players can achieve perfection in all strokes which includes drops, drives, toss, smash, defence and dribble with the help of this machine.

“The machine has a capacity to hold 250 shuttles, which come out one-by-one automatically at regular intervals. The shuttles do not stick together and it is a time-saving process as it takes less time to collect the shuttles for repetitive exercises,” he said.

He got the idea of making the machine in 2004 during his visit to the Czech Republic where he and a German coach thought of making an electronically operated shuttle-feeding machine.

“When I came back, due to limited sources, I could not make an electronic machine but was successful in making this manually-operated machine,” he said.

He used his invention with the Indian team at the preparatory camp held at Chandigarh for the Commonwealth Games held at Australia. “After that, I am using these machines continuously on a trial basis during the training programmes at Chandigarh.”

“The real moment of encouragement came to me when this machine was used at the National Coaching Camp at Hyderabad for the World Championship where Chief National Coach P. Gopi Chand appreciated my invention and also suggested small modifications, which were incorporated instantly,” he said.

Appreciating Mr Mahajan’s creation, Chief National Coach (junior), Sanjiv Sachdev said, “This machine will be a real asset and will go a long way in helping coaches to give more effective multi-shuttle training.

Chess tourney concludes
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
Pranjal, Himal, Anmol and Ravneet emerged winners in the u-7, u-13, u-17 and u-13 (girls) categories, respectively, during the Chandigarh Chess Championship 2006 for boys and girls which concluded today at St Xavier’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, here, today.

A total of 73 participants from various schools of Chandigarh participated in the championship.

The following players have been selected to represent Chandigarh at the National Chess Championship to be held at Goa next month: Anmol, Harpreet (u-17 boys); Rishu (u-17 girls); Ravneet Kaur, Srishti (u-13 girls); Himal, Shirish (u-13 boys); Pranjal, Anubhav (u-7 boys) and Gauri, Agampreet (u-7 girls)

Points position:

U-13 boys: 6 points: Himal Gusain

4.5 points: Shirish, Jagteshwar, Ameek, Prateek Munjal

4 points: Sahil Bhatia, Mayank Kaura, Shivam Sahni, Tejas Nagpal, Sahil Kansal

3.5 points: Satbir, Shivanshu Tondon,Varun Sayal

3 points: Daksh, Agam Gujral, Gunbir Singh, Sachleen, Mehul Jotshi, Love, Ishjiv Singh, Satyam Tondon, Parth Gupta, Prakhar Gusain

2.5 points: Purlov Arora, Vedant

2 points: Swikrit Malik, Shivam Kansal, Keshav Makkar, Archit Aggarwal, Sumant Sood, Ikshit, Udhaybir Garcha

1.5 points: Kuber Makkar, Praval Sharma

1 point: Pavneet Chabra

0.5 point: Harshpreet Singh

U-13 girls: 3.5 points: Ravneet Kaur

3 points: Srishti, Jasleen, Anshu

2.5 points: Tasmeen,

2 points: Roopam, Noor, Tanya,

1 point: Swastika, Moudita Gautam, Bani,

U-7 boys and girls: 4 points: Pranjal

3 points: Gauri, Anubhav, Shresht

2.5 points: Chirag

2 points: Aseem, Riplov, Agampreet

1.5 points: Saarthak, Bramjot, Annamay

1 point: Manvi

U-17 boys and girls: 4 points: Anmol

3 points: Harpreet, Rishu, Sulaksh

2 points: Tarundeep, Chaikit, Vasu

1.5 points: Gagandeep, Rajat Aggarwal

1 point: Vikram, Kamphon.

Ayurvedic college girls win overall title
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
Shri Dhanvantri Ayurvedic College girls won the overall championship garnering 20 points in the sixth Chandigarh State Women Boxing Championship held at the Sector 42 Stadium, here, today.

Government Home Science College got 9 points and secured the runners-up position while SD College- 32, with 6 points, got the third place.

The results: 46 kg: Pandit Shikha walk over (w/o) Sunidhi; 48kg: Sapna w/o Amrita; 50 kg: Jyoti b Kirti; 52 kg: Raveena w/o Suman; 54 kg: Arpana b Anshu; 57 kg: Neetu b Savita; 60 kg: Anjali b Tejwant; 63 kg: Satinder Kaur w/o Upasna; 66 kg: Darshna b Aditya; 86 kg: Amrinder w/o Reena Dewan.

Meanwhile, the boys of Guru Nanak Khalsa School, Sector 30, won the overall championship while the runners-up position went to Sharda Sarvhitkari Model Senior Secondary School-40 in the 21st Chandigarh Sub-junior Boys’ Boxing Championship held at the same venue.

Stephen’s, Khalsa academy match ends in draw
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
The match between Khalsa Football Academy, Kurali, and St Stephen’s Football Academy ended in a 2-2 draw on the third day of Fourth Kanwar Harbans Lal Memorial Football Tournament being played at the Football Stadium, Sector 17, here today.

At half time, the Kurali team was leading by two goals to nil. Tarundeep Singh opened the account for the Kurali team in the 10th minute. The next goal was scored by Mandeep Singh in 24th minute.

Displaying good coordination in the second half, the Stephen’s academy team struck in the 50th minute through Palmei. The equaliser came through Kamei, who collected a cross from Johny and converted it successfully. However, Sudhir of the Stephen’s team missed a easy chance in the dying minutes.

Kuldeep Antil of the Stephens team was adjudged the man of the match.

Meanwhile, the St Stephen’s Football Academy lodged a protest against the Khalsa academy for fielding players from classes higher than 10th Class to the organising committee. The committee will take the decision on the matter tomorrow.

Sigma, HFCL, Infosys win

Panchkula, November 5
Deadly bowling spells by Sumit and Akashdeep, who took three wickets each, helped the Sigma team to register a 65-run victory over ICICI Bank in the 7th Cry Cadence Corporate Cricket Challenge being played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Sector 3, here today.

After winning the toss, the Sigma team piled up 181 runs in 25 overs. In reply, ICICI were bowled out in the 19th over for 115 runs.

In another match, HFCL team defeated IBM Daksh by 59 runs. Rajil played a key role in the victory with a century (111 runs). The third match of the tournament was won by Infosys after beating Dell by 22 runs.

Brief Scores:

Sigma: 180 for 9 (Rakesh 47, Sanjay 42, Anup 37, Sumit 3 for 31, Akashdeep 3 for 13)

ICICI: 115 all out (Sumit 30, Prasanjit 26, Sanjay 4 for 16, Sandeep 2 for 26).

HFCL: 213 for 2 (Rajil 111, Vikram 56, Satwinder 1 for 27)

IBM Daksh: 154 all out (Amritpal 81, Satwinder 22, Vivek 4 for 18, Anil 2 for 1)

Infosys: 204 for 5 (Sumit Singh 93, Ankur 41, Karan 2 for 33, Prashant 2 for 36)

Dell: 182 for 6 (Paritosh 55, Karan 23, Rahut 4 for 29). — TNS

U-17 cricket tourney begins

Chandigarh, November 5
A fine bowling spell by Nishant Chauhan (3 for 19) enabled GNPS-A team, Sector 36, to defeat DAV School, Sector 15, by six wickets in the second GNPS Inter School/ Academy Under-17 League Cricket Tournament, which started at GNPS, Sector 36 grounds here today.

In another match, Paragon School, Mohali, beat GNPS-B by six wickets.

Brief scores: DAV-15: 134 for 9 in 25 overs (Arjunvir 24, Prabhjot 18, Rozel 16, Nishant 3 for 19).

GNPS-A: 135 for 4 in 22 overs (Navtej 25, Shubham 32 n.o, Gurpreet 25 n.o, Arjunvir 2 for 25).

GNPS-B: 149 for 5 in 25 overs (Chakshu Bajaj 57) Paragon: 152 for 4 in 20 overs (Sartaj 37, Navi 58, Darsh 23 n.o, Chakshu 2 for 20, Aman 2 for 33). — TNS

Returning officers appointed for MC poll
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 5
The State Election Commission has appointed returning officers for the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections.

While seven of these have been appointed for 26 wards, two returning officers have been appointed for the Panchayat Samiti elections.

Those appointed are: Ward Nos. 1-4 — Inderjeet Singh Sandhu; ward Nos. 5-8 — Arun Sekri; Ward Nos. 9-12 — O.P. Popli; Ward Nos. 13-16 — M.S. Brar; Ward Nos. 17-20 — P.S. Shergill; Ward Nos. 21-23 — Daljit Singh; and Ward Nos. 24-26 — Vivek Atray.

Ashwini Kumar has been appointed Returning Officer for Khuda Ali Sher, Kaimbawala, Khudajassu, Sarngpur and Dhanas villages, while Kamlesh Kumar has been appointed Returning Officer for Raipur Khurd, Raipur Kalan, Mauli Jagran, Dariya, Kishangarh and Behalana villages.