Chandigarh, May 29
A 10-day Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) programme on “Emerging trends in cardiac emergencies” got under way at the Western Command Hospital, Chandi Mandir, yesterday.

Thirty delegates comprising nursing officers from various hospitals under the Western Command and also from civilian hospitals are participating in the deliberations.

Maj-Gen Pruthwiraj Rao, deputy director, medical services, Western Command, inaugurated the programme by lighting the traditional lamp and releasing the souvenir of the programme. Brig S.S. Jaitawat, officiating commandant of the hospital, and senior officers of the Western Command Headquarters and the Command Hospital were present on the occasion.

Emphasising the importance of holding a programme on cardiac emergencies, General Rao said the topic chosen for the programme was appropriate as cardiovascular disease was the greatest scourge afflicting the population worldwide and it was cutting across all sections of society, breaking all age barriers. CNEs, he said, were the best platform from where the participating nursing officers could gain experience and knowledge, which would help them carry out their duties more efficiently.

Teachers sensitised to dengue
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29
The Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme conducted a sensitisation workshop on prevention and control of dengue, malaria and chikungunya for teachers of government schools.

As many as 60 schoolteachers were given orientation training today for taking preventive steps of vector-borne diseases, according to a press note issued here.

Assistant director, Health (Malaria), D. Ranjinder K. Sharma, emphasised that sensitisation of the teachers would help in the implementation of programme. 

Chandigarh, May 29
A local court today remanded Narinder Singh, director of Ludhiana-based M/s Frontier Cycle Industries and accused of raping a 24-year-old Ropar resident on the pretext of getting her a job, in one-day police custody.

Sources in the Sector 34 police station said the remand was sought to verify the letter written by the accused to Spice Telecom recommending the candidature of the victim for a job in the company. The police also got the statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The in-camera proceedings were conducted in the court of R.K. Bhankar, judicial magistrate (first class).

The police said the victim did not get any job through Narinder Singh.

Chandigarh, May 29
A celebration of letters, of a poetic spirit that inspires -‘Poetry in the Park’, the first gathering of a series - was launched by a group of poetry lovers at Bougainvillea Garden, Sector 3, in the city on May 27.

Conceptualised by Shumita Didi as a means of “using spaces” which this city abounds in, ‘Poetry in the Park’ is an attempt to reconnect poetry back to where it is performed best: in the open.

With the last Sunday of every month playing host to a lyrical evening, ‘Poetry in the Park’ is an attempt of “the common man to reclaim these spaces for himself,” says Poonam Singh, editor Preetlari, Shumita’s sister and co-collaborator in this effort.

A belief which stems from Shumita’s conviction that this will take ownership to everybody and each park can have its own cultural nerve centre where a theme poet could be the focus and then an open mike would invite people to recite their favourite poets and their own poetry.

The first gathering on Sunday was a salutation to Rabindranath Tagore whose birthday on May 8 is celebrated for a fortnight all over West Bengal and Bangladesh as ‘Kabi Paksha’. In the city, the closure of this fortnight saw the inception of this monthly poetic soiree.

It began with one of the walkers of the park, Dr Balraj Singh Gill singing a few couplets of Habeeb Jalib, one of Pakistan's legendary poets followed by two songs of Gorakh Pandey and a passionate recitation in Bengali of Tagore’s, ‘Ora Kaj Kore’ (They Also Work) interspersed with English by theatre activist and performance poet Parnab Mukherjee.

An eloquent reading by Poonam of a letter by Tagore translated in Punjabi and portions of Tagore’s play ‘Dakghar’ (The Post Office) preceded Shumita singing portions of ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ as a hymn and Nirupama Dutt, poet and journalist, reading out two poems of Kumar Vikal.

The inspiration for this gathering, “Our father, who is a poet”, smiles Poonam.