Ludhiana, April 5
The elections for the local branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to be held on April 8 at the IMA Bhavan here are witnessing a lot of dirt being raised by contenders.

The fact that the IMA is purely a professional body and its members belong to the nobel medical profession notwithstanding, some of the contestants or their close supporters have been indulging in such campaigning that could have been well avoided to maintain the dignity of the body, feel many senior members of the association here.

Dr Arun Mitra and Dr B.S. Sekhon are pitted against each other for the post of president and the direct fight has all the elements of a keen contest. In the course of fierce campaigning by the two contenders, many a skeleton have come tumbling out.

Only yesterday, supporters of Dr Sekhon sought details from the civil surgeon under the RTI Act regarding a case of the death of a child in Khanna way back in 2004, who was operated upon by Dr D.P. Singh Arora. Dr Arora has been fielded by the Mitra group for the post of joint secretary.

The Mitra group today retorted with the allegation that outgoing president Dr Gursharan Singh and a supporter of Sekhon had been charged with financial irregularities by the state branch of the IMA. A copy of the show cause notice issued to Dr Gursharan was also released at a press conference by Dr Mitra here today.

Dr Mitra told a news conference that other candidates put up by his group were Dr Subhash Batta for the post of senior vice-president, Dr Rajeev Gupta as secretary, Dr D.P. Singh Arora as joint secretary and Dr Karamveer Goyal for the post of finance secretary.

The contenders for the different posts of the IMA expressed anguish over the distortion of facts in a section of media. They clarified that the IMA poll had nothing to do with any political party or ideology. “This is only for the welfare of health services since the IMA will work and look after the interests of all sections of doctors, patients and issues of public health”.

Dr Mitra maintained that as per chairman of the IMA election committee Dr Iqbal Singh Ahuja, the elections were to be held for the post of president, one senior vice-president, one secretary, one joint secretary and one finance secretary. The contention that four vice-presidents were to be elected was wrong, he claimed.

Meanwhile, some of the senior most and respected members of medical fraternity had made an earnest appeal to the IMA members to avoid elections and reach a consensus among the contenders aspiring for different posts in the body.

In a signed statement, Dr L.S. Chawla, Dr S.B. Khurana, Dr Ajit Singh Dua, Dr H.M. Khosla and Dr D.S. Brar said though in a democratic society, each organisation had a right to hold elections, the process, at times, led to bitterness. The work in the IMA was immense and every body could contribute to keep the body active and alive to academic as well other professional interests.

Ludhiana, April 5
The district branch of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) and the department of paediatrics at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) will jointly organise the annual conference of the lAP here on April 7 and 8. The conference to be held under the aegis of the state units of the IAP and the adolescent chapter of the body will be attended by more than 250 eminent paediatricians from all over the country and Pakistan.

Giving this information at a news conference here today, Dr Harmesh Singh Bains, professor and head, department of paediatrics, DMCH, who is also the organising secretary of the conference, informed that the faculty in the scientific session would include noted experts from New Delhi, PGI, Chandigarh, the DMCH, Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), Ludhiana, and paediatricians from Lahore and Islamabad.

The conference would focus on various topics related to day-to-day care of children and adolescents with panel discussions and presentations on the management of advanced liver disease, bleeding disorder, recent guidelines in management of tuberculosis among children and tackling child with development problems.

Dr Harinder Singh, district president, and Dr Vineet Arora, secretary of the lAP, said the inaugural ceremony would be held at the Nirwana Club on the Humbran Road. On the opening day, Dr P.D. Nayyar from Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi, would deliver the keynote address. He would discuss ‘Public Health Impact of Adolescent Issues — Paediatricians Role’. The guest speaker, Dr Zaheer Abbasi from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, would focus on the ‘Management of PDA (patent ductus arteriosis) in non-cardiac centres’.

According to Dr R.S. Sibia, joint organising secretary of the IPA, Dr Huma Cheema from Lahore (Pakistan), Dr V.P. Choudhry and Dr Varinder Singh, both from New Delhi, Dr Daljit Singh, principal of DMCH, Dr Jugesh Chhatwal from the CMCH, and Dr Prabhjot Malhi from the PGI, Chandigarh, would dwell upon different aspects of the child and adolescent health from the perspective of paediatricians at the day-long scientific session at the DMCH.