Don’t prescribe in excess: Walia advises doctors
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 7
Excessive medication may compound the condition rather than cure it. Delhi Health Minister A K Walia today cautioned doctors not to prescribe excessive medicines, rather they should rely on their rational use as a means for effective treatment.

Dr Walia was speaking at the release of the Standard Treatment Guidelines brought out by the Delhi Society For Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs in collaboration with the World Health Organisation-India Programme on Essential Drugs.

Pointing out that some doctors have the habit of prescribing a lot of medicines for a particular disease, he said that this harms the patients in the long run.

He expressed concern that many doctors have the habit of prescribing costly medicines, which are beyond the reach of the patients, thereby making treatment out of reach for these people.

The Minister said that for the ailments such as a viral disease, doctors should avoid prescribing lots of medicines and instead they should advise patients just to take Paracetamol in case of high fever as the disease would take a specific time to subside.

Dr Walia also advised against use of steroids for treating diseases in the first instance. Though it gives an immediate and quick relief, but in the long run a lot of complications arise. The patient finds it difficult to get relief from the same medicine and higher and more strong medicines are then required, he cautioned.

Referring to the new Drug Policy of the Delhi Government, Dr Walia said that earlier all hospitals used to procure drugs separately, but under the new policy, drug procurement was done at one place so that adequate and quality medicines were available to the people visiting the government hospitals. It has also encouraged the rational use of drugs in the national Capital, he observed.

Speaking on the occasion, DSPRUD president Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury said that though 90 per cent of drugs prescribed for patients were actually given free to patients in Delhi hospitals, it was a matter of concern that proper prescribing of medicine was not done.

Prof Roy Chaudhury said that though the drugs were available in plenty, they are not being used properly. Various practitioners use different treatment modules for the same disease, he pointed out and said that the Standard

Treatment Guidelines formulated by more than 70 eminent medical experts of various fields would go a long way in guiding doctors to enhance the quality of treatment.

Dr Kris Veerasurya, WHO representative, asked the doctors to adhere to the Standard Treatment Guidelines, stressing the need to develop critical approach among medical practitioner.

Dr R N Baishya, Director General of Health Services, Delhi Government, said that procuring best quality drugs at the cheapest rate was a major challenge and the DSPRUD has helped the government in meeting it.

Ayurvedic remedy for psoriasis claimed
Nalini Ranjan

New Delhi, November 7
A well-known charitable organisation, Indian Psoriasis Foundation, has formulated a unique ayurvedic remedy, Psorban, to wipe out one of the most dreaded skin diseases, psoriasis.

Dr Ambalkar of the Foundation, said that the disease could only be cured through ayurveda. In other forms of treatment, it had been found that psoriasis would disappear for a few months but would come back in its more vigorous form than before. He said: “My own close relatives were suffering from this disease. Doctors had refused to treat them. Then, as an ayurvedic practitioner, I devoted all my time and energy to find a cure for this disease. After many years, I have succeeded.”

He said: “Our organisation is not just an association to cure patients but is a movement to eradicate this terrible disease from our soil. For this, we are conducting various awareness drives like medical camps, seminars, study classes, special treatment programmes etc.”

“Like AIDS and cancer, psoriasis is a dangerous disease and it baffles medical science the world over. As a skin disease, it makes the patient look ugly and alienates him from the society. Like cancer, psoriasis is an auto-immune disorder and it happens due to surplus cells in the body. If sufficient treatment is not given, it grows. It is neither contagious through contact nor is caused by allergy. It has nothing to do with not keeping the body clean either.

SPORTS

Hindustan, Shahdara sail into semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
Delhi Soccer Association League champions Hindustan Club and Shahdara Club sailed into the semi-finals of the first Lt. Governor’s Cup Prize Money Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium on Thursday. Both the semi-final matches will be played on Friday.

Hindustan Club beat Simla Youngs 4-3 through tie-breaker, after being locked one-all at the end of the regulation period.

Hindustan forged ahead in the 55th minute when defender Pushpender Kundu headed home. But 15 minutes later, Simla Youngs drew parity through Sunil Rawat.

In the tie-breaker, Pushpender Kundu, Devesh Kaushik and Rishi Kapoor converted their spot kicks while only Rajinder Singh and Manish Negi could find the mark for Simla Youngs. Anil Rawat and Kuldip Singh were foiled by rival custodian Biswajeet Halder.

In the other match, Shahdara Club ousted Buddisht Blue Stars 6-4 via tie-breaker, after sharing two goals at the end of regulation play.

Shahdara dominated the match, and opened their account in the third minute through Neeraj Choudhary. They forced a number of chances to score, but Promodh Rawat and Bhupinder Thakur time and again fumbled inside the goal box.

In the second half, B B Stars drew parity through N Kupgen in the 48th minute.

In the tie-breaker, Shahdara converted all their five kicks through Ravinder Rana, Neeraj Choudhary, Arjun Negi, Satish Kumar and Pramodh Rawat while only Rajesh Barua, Jagdish Bagga and R S Negi convert their penalty kicks for B B Stars.

DDCA names 17 players for Ranji Trophy
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has announced a 17-member Delhi team, led by Vijay Dahiya, for their season-opener against Railways, to be played at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi.

According to DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan, the selection committee meeting was chaired by him, and attended by Anil Jain, Surender Khanna, Venkat Sunderam, Sunil Khanna, chief coach Bishan Singh Bedi, senior coach Yashpal Sharma and convenor Sunil Dev.

The team includes Kuldeep Rawat, who has also been named the vice-captain of the North Zone Under-19 team for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy, and India players Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra.

The team: Vijay Dahiya (captain), Mithun Manhas, Akash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Pardeep Chawla, Sarandeep Singh, Amit Bhandari, Arun Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Abhishek Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra, Varun Kumar, Kuldeep Rawat, Premvir Nagar, Harender Chaudhary and Siddharth Verma.

Noida College grapplers shine
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
Wrestlers from the Noida College of Physical Education (NCPE) put up a good performance in the All-India Inter-University Wrestling Championship held at the Ch. Charan Singh (CCS) University in Meerut.

The NCPE grapplers lifted two gold, one silver and three bronze medals, which helped hosts CCS University to finish as runners-up in the All-India Inter-University Wrestling Championship.

Sushil Kumar won the gold in the 66kg and Pawan Kumar lifted the plus 96kg gold. Kuldeep annexed the silver medal in the 55kg category. Jagmander Singh (60kg), Paramjit (74kg) and Parveen Kumar (84kg) were the bronze medallists. Around 571 wrestlers from 63 universities took part in the championship.

Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak collected 20 points to annex the team title. CCS University with 16 points finished second while Punjab University collected eight points to end up third.

Shivam, Nishant hit centuries for St Columba’s
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
Centuries by Shivam Gupta (120) and Nishant Watel (109) helped St. Columba’s School beat Don Bosco by eight wickets in the sixth Inter-School Under-17 Cricket Tournament at the Gyan Bharti School ground, Saket.

Scores: Don Bosco (first innings): 118 all out in 32 overs (Anmol Lamba 22, Ankit Lal 21, Tushar Kumar 3 for 32).

Second innings: 261 all out in 40 overs (Rameez Niyamat 130, Ankit Lal 23, Wilkins Victor 4 for 86).

St. Columba’s (first innings): 315 all out in 60 overs (Shivam Gupta 120 n o, Nishant Watel 109, Vikram Mahajan 6 for 86). Second innings: 64 for 2 in 8 overs (Shivam Gupta 56 n o).

JRA beat British Gas

JRA defeated British Gas by 109 runs in a league match of the second Eventus Cup Cricket Tournament at the Palam ground. JRA scored 76 runs in the last seven overs to post a huge total.

Scores: JRA: 189 for 8 in 25 overs (N Rajesh 60, 37b, 4x9; K A Sriram 46, 54b; Vinay Chopra 2 for 40, Gaurav Srivastav 2 for 31).

British Gas: 80 all out in 21.2 overs (Vijay Karki 26, 41b; Brijesh Singh 4 for 17, Rohan Narayan 2 for 12).

NIIT, ICICI Bank locked in tie

NIIT and ICICI Bank played a tied match in the sixth D G Phadkar Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Teri Oval.

Scores: NIIT: 122 all out in 25 overs (Rajan Sankar 30, 2x4, 1x6; Chandan Sikhija 16, Rajesh Varshney 13, Amit Sahani 5 for 21).

ICICI Bank: 122 all out in 25 overs (Vikas Prashad 23, 3x4, 1x6; Amit Sahani 21 n o, 1x4, 1x6; Arvind Kanda 15, 2x4; Gagan Adalka 3 for 12, Kapil Gupta 2 for 12).

Top teams for Shastri Hockey
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
Top teams will participate in the 13th All-India Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament to be held at the Shivaji Stadium from November 27.

Defending champions Punjab and Sind Bank, runners-up Indian Airlines, Air India (Mumbai), Bharat Petroleum, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (Dehradun) and Sports Authority of India teams have confirmed their participation, according to organising secretary K D Prashar.

PHD-GPI Bridge Tourney: The PHD-GPI Bridge Tournament will be held at the PHD House, opposite Asian Games Village, from November 8 to 11. Entries close for team of four on Friday at 10 am and for pairs on Saturday at 7.30 pm.

Entry fee for team of four is Rs 2500 while for pair the fee is Rs 600.

The winners of team of four will pocket a prize money of Rs 1,25,000 while the runners-up will get Rs 75,000. The losing semi-finalists will get Rs 40,000 each while the losing quarter-finalists will be richer by Rs 20,000. The best women’s team will be given a cash prize of Rs 30,000. In the pairs event, the winners will take home Rs 60,000 while the runners-up will get Rs 40,000. 

Canas to defend Tata Open

New Delhi, November 7
Guillermo Canas, the Tata Open 2002 champion, who is currently ranked 15 in the ATP Champions Race, has confirmed his participation in the Tata Open Tennis Championship to be held in Chennai from December 30 to January 5, 2003.

The US $400,000 Tata Open is India and South Asia’s only ATP International Series event, and one of only seven in all of Asia. The Tata Open will be held in Chennai for the seventh consecutive year. The tournament is conducted under the aegis of the All-India Tennis Association. OSR

Jagmohan visits Kotla ground
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 7
Union Minister for Culture Jagmohan visited the Ferozeshah Kotla ground to inspect the infrastructure and parking facilities before construction work begins on the new stadium.

Former Union Minister and Delhi and District Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley and senior vice-president C. K. Khanna took Jagmohan around the stadium, and explained to him the plans of the proposed stadium, in which special thrust has been given to parking facilities to ease out congestion during international matches.

DDCA vice-presidents Chetan Chauhan and Suresh Chopra were also present.

R S Randhawa retires

New Delhi, November 7
Well-known athletic coach R. S. Randhawa retired from the Sports Authority of India after a long and successful reign of 37 years. Mr Randhawa has produced several national and international level athletes. Randhawa was given a fond farewell by the All-India Coaches’ Welfare Association at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. His last assignment was as Officer on Special Duty. The director general of the Sports Authority of India Shekhar Dutt and executive director M. P. Ganesh also attended the farewell party. The SAI top brass assured the coaches that their long-pending demand for promotion would be looked into sympathetically. OSR