Chandigarh, June 21
To commemorate International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the drug de-addiction and treatment centre of department of psychiatry, PGIMER, Chandigarh, will organise camps and awareness campaign at various places.

The camps will be held at Dera Bassi truck union, Balongi truck union, Mohali, Civil Hospital, Kharar, Khanpur village, Mohal, Hallo Majra, Chandigarh, where there is sizeable migrant population.

The final programme will be held at the PGIMER on June 26.

For pre-adolescent and adolescent population, nukkad natak and puppet shows will be organised.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, monthly prevalence of drug use is 2.7 per cent of the world population.

Around 25 million people between the age group of 15-64 illegally use drugs requiring medical and various level of psychological interventions.

Chandigarh, June 21
With a view to organising and coordinating activities to increase awareness among public and patients about allergic diseases and asthma through camps, a group comprising doctors of allergic diseases and patients suffering from these diseases has been launched by Chaitanya Hospital under chairmanship of Prof Lata Kumar, former head, department of paediatrics, PGI.

The group, Saans Sahyog, will provide a platform to patients and their parents to interact with each other and learn from each other’s experiences.

Asthma is one of the leading causes of childhood hospitalisation, long-term illness and school absenteeism, accounting for nearly 15 million missed school days each year, said Dr Lata.

In spite of the fact that asthma is widespread, public awareness of common asthma triggers and ways to manage the disease remains limited, added Dr Lata.

Though these diseases do not have a permanent cure, these can be controlled to a large extent with appropriate medication, precautions and decreasing exposure to allergens, said the doctor.

Patiala, June 21
Black Elephant Cricket Club (MES), Patiala, defeated MCM, Chandigarh, by eight wickets in the first Edmund Rice Trophy (under-12), here today.

Batting first, MCM Chandigarh was all out in 25 overs, making 74 runs. The Patiala boys chased the total in just 13.5 overs at a loss of two wickets. BE’s Sunver Singh, Tanish Gill and Anmool Preet Singh were named the best batsman, best fielder and best player of the tournament, respectively. Tavneet Singh of MCM was the best bowler of the tournament. 

Chandigarh, June 21
LIC Club ousted Nivea Cricket on the basis of the spin of coin as both the teams ended in a thrilling tie in the quarterfinals of the Hot Weather Cricket Tournament held at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, here today.

As both the teams made 157 runs in the allotted 25 runs, the decision was taken by the spin of coin by the authorities. Batting first, LIC XI scored 157 for 4 in 25 overs with a fine unbeaten knock of 55 by Ravinder Nain.

Amitoz Singh chipped in 27 while Prabhjot Singh contributed 36. Medium-pacer Sonu Kumar took two wickets for 23 runs, followed by Sonu Khan and Pushpinder Rana, who captured one wicket each for 18 and 25 runs, respectively.

NCC, who were looking to consolidate at 97 for 3, slumped to 120 for 8 in 21.1 overs.

Anil K Sharma (30), Rahul Ubbi (27), Ankur (20) and Sonu Khan (14 n.o) were the main scorers. Nivea required just two runs from the last delivery to win.

But the last batsman got run out after completing one run. Sandeep captured three wickets for 20 runs. 

Chandigarh, June 21
The Chandigarh Administration will conduct a first of its kind sibling survey of the city by a show of hands from among schoolchildren and college students. The survey will ascertain the family size and sibling composition of young families in the city.

A brainchild of the special secretary finance, UT, Raji P Srivastava, the sibling survey will be carried out next month when the city schools and re-open after summer vacations. “The aim is to assess family composition to understand shifting trends in families and also to obtain data on social trends among couples in the age group of 24 to 60,” she said.

An easy method of show of hands by schoolchildren will be used, probably for the first time in the country, to gather the data. “Either a class teacher will collect the information given by the respondents for us or our volunteers can visit the classrooms,” added Srivastava.

The survey will be conducted in all government and private schools in Chandigarh, all government and private colleges in the city and in all classes in these institutions. Each of the students between the age group of 4 years to 20 years will be asked about the siblings they have. The details of the number of brothers, sisters who are younger or older to the respondent will be noted down. “This way the number of only children will also be identified. Since the collected data will pertain to people born between the years 2003 and 1987 this can be co-related with census data for 1991 and 2001,” said Srivastava who is also the Director Statistics UT.

Srivastava added that this survey is part of the child protection programme launched by the Chandigarh Administration. The data collected will also be used for seeking a connection with the spurt in the availability of pre-natal sex determination tests, the enactment of legislation banning female specific abortions or abortions on non-medical grounds. The level of education and prosperity of parents will be evident from the choice of schools and colleges the parents have made.

“While designing programme and policies statistics come in very handy. However, census data which is available only once in 10 years is often not a reliable indicator of rapidly shifting social and economic trends and preferences exercised by citizens in various walks of life,” said Srivastava.

Other than the college and school principals who have already assured the Administration of their cooperation for the survey the Administration also intends to rope in willing college students from psychology and sociology subjects to volunteer as surveyors for this project.

“This will hone their data collections skills. This simple method of show of hand sibling survey will throw up the numbers that we sorely need to have in order to design special programmes for the girl chill, slum children and to curb gender disparities in the city,” pointed out Srivastava.