The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Health sector needs public-private boost: Rodrigues
Tribune News Service

The centre has 11 youngsters from Janata Colony enrolled as primary health workers. These youngsters, who have cleared Class XII examination, were trained by professionals with special emphasis on childcare.

The centre has identified 117 children in the risk category who are underweight in the colony. The Trust is prepared to start their programmes at Mauli Jagran and Saketri villages.

Chandigarh, April 12
Punjab Governor and the UT administrator Gen (retd) S.F. Rodrigues during his visit to the Developing Indigenous Resources India, a charitable trust in Janta Colony, Naya Gaon, here, today emphasised the need for broadening and deepening the scope of public-private partnership in improving the health status and quality of life of rural people.

In an interaction with the members of the Trust engaged in providing primary healthcare services, General Rodrigues emphasised the need for increasing the reach of the healthcare system to every household through trained health workers.

He appreciated the Trust for undertaking this new community-based service delivery programme and asked its members to actively involve village panchayat members, district administration and NGOs in this endeavour. He told them to strengthen the network of the organisation to step up the awareness programme.

The General and his wife Jean Rodrigues interacted with the trainees of the programme. Dr Amrit Bolaria and Dr W. Frederick Shaw, CEO of the Trust, evaluated the knowledge of the trainees through a question-answer session.

Explaining the objective of the programme, Dr Bolaria informed that the Trust had a programme to expand its activities throughout the state in a phased manner."

Deputy commissioner, Mohali, H.I.S. Garewal and other senior officers of the administration were present.

Study on asthma at other centres too
Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 12
A study on asthma and other allergies among people over the age of 15 has been extended to other centers, including Shimla, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bikaner, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, and Mysore with coordinating centre at Chandigarh.

A team of experts in pulmonary medicines, including Dr Dheeraj Gupta, Dr Ashutosh Aggarwal, Dr Ritesh Aggarwal, from the department of pulmonary medicines, PGIMER, Chandigarh, along with Dr Rajesh Kumar and Dr J.S. Thakur of community medicines, is coordinating the study. The team is headed by Dr S.K. Jindal, professor and head of the department.

Local investigators, including chest physicians and people from medical colleges, are involved in field work.

The study, to be completed by the end of next year, is being sponsored by the ICMR, said Dr Jindal. A sum of Rs 1 crore has been set aside for the study.

In a previous study carried out during 2004-05 at four centres - Bangalore, Kanpur, New Delhi and Chandigarh - it was found that asthma was prevalent among 2.2 per cent males, while 2.6 per cent women were affected by the disease.

While Bangalore topped the list with 3.47 per cent of its population suffering from the disease, Delhi had 1.7 per cent cases.

Similarly, Chandigarh and Kanpur had 2.3 and 2 per cent of people affected with the disease, respectively.

It was also found that 2.2 per cent of the rural population was afflicted by the disease in these four centres, while 2.6 per cent of the urban population was affected.

However, risk factors listed in the study included female, advancing age, usual residence in the urban areas, lower socio-economic status, history of asthma in first degree relatives, history of other allergies, and all forms of tobacco smoking.

Talking about the project, Dr Jindal said between 12,000 and 15,000 samples would be collected at each centre. People would be asked to fill out a standardised validated questionnaire.

The idea behind the study is to find prevalence of asthma and other allergies among people above the age of 15 years and find factors responsible for these diseases in different pockets of the country. It will help formulate a policy to tackle the disease.

Rare bone surgery performed

Mohali, April 12
Sri Guru Harkrishan Sahib (C) Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sohana, has claimed to have performed a rare bone tumour surgery.

A press release stated here today that 24- year-old Kuldeep Kumar, a resident of Sarkaghat in Himachal Pradesh, was diagnosed with a malignant bone tumour in his left leg. He consulted various doctors who advised amputation.

Kuldeep then consulted doctors at Sri Guru Harkrishan Sahib Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sohana, where doctors decided to operate only on the malignant portion of his leg.

Gurmeet Singh, secretary of the trust and Dr M.S. Narula who headed the surgical team, said only the tumour portion was excised and replaced by a special customised mega prosthesis in a four-hour-long surgery.

Gurmeet Singh added that since the hospital was a charitable organisation, the patient had to pay less than Rs 1.5 lakh against charges of about Rs 2.5 lakh charged by other hospitals for the surgery.

The patient is recovering well and will regain almost complete normal leg function in a few weeks, say consultants. — OC

SPORTS

Local cricketer makes strides
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Being a left-arm spinner, Karan has the capability to dodge any good batsman at the crease with his fast moves. He attracted everybody’s attention during an under-15 tournament where he took seven wickets by conceding just one run (including two hat-tricks) against a Delhi club team at the age of 11.

Chandigarh, April 12
City boy and budding cricketer Veer Karan Goyal has been selected in the Chandigarh under-15 team for the Sushil Bali Trophy being organised by the PCA from April 15 to 30.

Karan, a student of St John's High School, Sector 26, had earlier represented Chandigarh at the school nationals in 2005 and 2006 in the under-14 category. He also represented Punjab in the under-13 North Zone Inter-State Cricket Tournament where he claimed the highest number of wickets and had the best batting average.

An admirer of West Indies’ great Brian Lara, this fine all-rounder wants to become a cricketer like his idol. “I enjoy batting and bowling. I want to be a great cricketer and achieve my target,” said Karan.

Thirteen-year-old Karan, who started playing cricket at the age of eight years, has been honing his skills under the supervision of coach Nagesh Gupta at St John's Cricket Academy.

Terming him a born cricketer, Nagesh Gupta said, “Being a left-arm spinner, Karan has the capability to dodge any good batsman at the crease with his fast moves. He attracted everybody’s attention during an under-15 tournament where he took seven wickets by conceding just one run (including two hat-tricks) against a Delhi club team at the age of 11. Recently, he took four wickets against the visiting u-17 team of a South African province which came here for a series. This southpaw is also very good with the bat.”

AITA MEET
Suraj upsets top seed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 12
Top seed Gurinder Singh lost to Suraj Beniwal 6-3, 6(3)-7, 2-6 in a well-contested semifinal match in the boys’ under-14 singles category of the ongoing AITA Talent Tennis Championship at the CLTA, Sector 10, here today.

In the match that lasted 210 minutes, Gurinder Singh won the first set with ease. Suraj held his nerves and levelled the score by winning the second set in the tiebreaker 7-6 (3).

Suraj dominated the proceedings in the deciding set and clinched a berth in the final by defeating Gurinder.

Local lad Nischay Rawal was the other finalist. He defeated Kamal Kishore Maderana of Rajasthan 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3 in the second semifinal match that lasted 220 minutes.

Suraj and Nischay will play the final tomorrow.

In the under-12 category, Nischay Rawal booked a berth in the final after he defeated fifth seed Suraj Hasrani of Kerala 6-1, 7-5 in the semifinal.

In the second semifinal, top seed Digvijay Singh Naruka got the better of Ranjeet Singh 6-1, 6-0. Rawal will take on Naruka in the final tomorrow.

Simran Kaur Sethi of Delhi beat Jasmine Kaur Bajaj 6-4, 6-0 and Rimpledeep Kaur of Punjab 6-2, 6-1 to reach the finals of girls’ under-12 and under-14 categories, respectively.

The results: Boys’ under-12 singles (semifinals): Digvijay S. Naruka (Chd) b Ranjeet Singh (Chd) 6-1,6-0; Nischay Rawal (Chd) b Suraj Hasrani (Ker) 6-1, 7-5.

Boys’ under-14 singles (semifinals): Suraj Beniwal (Har) b Gurinder Singh (Chd) 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2; Nischay Rawal (Chd) b Kamal Kishore Maderana (Raj) 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3.

Girls’ under-12 singles (semifinals): Bhavika Wadawan (Chd) b Rajvir Kaur (Pb) 6-1, 6-0; Simran Sethi (Del) b Jasmine Bajaj (Del) 6-4, 6-0.

Girls’ under-14 singles (semi-finals): Ikttesh Chahal (Chd) b Harnoor Kaur Mann (Chd) 6-3, 6-0; Simran Sethi (Del) b Rimpledeep Kaur (Pb) 6-2, 6-1.

Boys’ under-12 doubles (semifinals): Ranjeet Singh and Sachin (Chd) b Sarthak Dash and Barun Gill (Chd) 6-0, 6-1; Suraj Hasrani and Anirudh Jaindhan (Ker) b Rohin Vinayak and Raghav Talwar (Chd) 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

Boys’ under-14 doubles: (semifinals): Resham Singh (Har) and Pankaj (Chd) b Davinder Singh (Chd) Utkarsh (UP) 6-4, 6-4; Kamal Kishore Maderana (Raj) and Digvijay S. Naruka (Chd) b Suraj Beniwal (Har) and Aiman 6-3, 7-5.

Girls’ under-14 doubles (semifinals): Bhavika Wadhawan (Chd) and Jasmine Bajaj (Dli) b Ikttesh Chahal (Chd) and Harnoor Kaur Mann (Chd) 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; Parminder Kaur (Chd) and Indu Punia (Har) b Rimpledeep Kaur (Pb) and Rajvir Kaur (Chd) 6-2, 6-1.

Cricket trials today
Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 12
Trials to select the u-17 Mohali district cricket team will be held tomorrow at 3 pm at PCA cricket stadium, C-Ground, here.

Only players born after August 31, 1990 can participate. The selected team will participate in the Punjab inter-district tournament, from which the Punjab state team will be selected for the inter-state championship.

All the players should either be studying or living in Mohali. The players must bring a photocopy of their birth certificate or a certificate from the respective institute confirming the date of birth.