Swine flu alert

With swine flu threat spreading at a high rate, city hospitals should be alerted well in advance regarding the preventive steps and the standard protocols for treating patients. People suffering from breathlessness or who are believed to be severely ill should seek immediate medical attention. Health services should take precautionary measures. People suffering from severe cough or cold should cover their mouth to avoid the spread of virus. Proper precautions should be taken at home. Hands should be washed properly at regular intervals. Chicken and junk food should be avoided. Also, the government should conduct proper screening of clinics, laboratories and hospitals and should start a campaign to aware the public regarding the symptoms and precautions of the disease. --Navneet Arora, Ludhiana

No DBTL benefits to the needy

The Narinder Modi Government has come up with a new PAHAL (DBTL) scheme starting from January 2015. The new scheme seems to be more consumer-friendly but it requires proper implementation for making it popular among the masses. Since many genuine consumers have not been paid DBTL arrears either by the oil marketing companies or by their gas distributors, the scheme may not find favours among poor consumers. It is proposed that the participating agencies should clear the pending work of passing on the DBTL benefits to the poor consumers to make ‘PAHAL (DBTL)’ a success. --Dr (Prof) YP Gupta, Ludhiana