Jalandhar, December 18
Meant to treat critically ill patients, super-speciality units in all the three government medical colleges (GMC) of the state are virtually running without super-specialist doctors.

Almost all such wings, which otherwise should be manned by doctors with doctorate of medicine (DM) and master of chirurgical (Mch) degrees, are either literally lying defunct or being run by a single doctor.

In such a scenario, patients have to pay exorbitant amounts in private hospitals to get treatment even for common emergencies like cardiac arrest, brain hemorrhage, paralytic attack, burn injuries, kidney failure, road accidents and surgical interventions.

What’s worse is that private super-specialist doctors are working on an honorary basis in a few of such units.

Similarly, some of the super-specialities are being run by doctors having doctor of medicine (MD) and master of surgery (MS) degrees who, by qualification, are one rung lower than the DM and Mch doctors, respectively.

Sources confirm that no super-specialist doctor was available in the departments of nephrology, gastroenterology, neurology and transplant medicine at the GMC, Amritsar.

Similarly, in the surgery stream, no Mch doctor is posted in the departments of neurosurgery, endocrinology, gastro surgery and pediatric surgery. The departments of cardio-thoracic surgery, urology and plastic surgery have one doctor each.

With no super specialist doctors available in neonatology, hematology, nephrology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery branches, the situation at the GMC, Patiala, is appalling.

The department of plastic and pediatric surgery, endocrinology, neurology and urology are being run by a single doctor each. A private super-specialist cardiologist visits the highly important cardiology unit that too for just twice a week.

Barring the cancer department, manned with three super-specialist doctors, only one doctor is posted in the neurosurgery, pediatric surgery and urology department at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot.

Here also, the cardiology department outsourced the services of a private doctor. Besides, no other super speciality is functional in the institute.

Admitting that the shortage of super specialists hit the tertiary level healthcare, Dr Jai Kishen, director, department of medical education and research, said the major reason behind the dearth was low pay packages as compared to what doctors are getting in the private sector.

“The Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, has advertised the posts of super-specialist doctors,” he added.

Jalandhar, December 18
The 135th Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan will be held from December 24 to 26 this year on the Devi Talab Mandir premises. The competitions have been scheduled for December 21 to 23.

The schedule was disclosed at a press conference organised by the Shree Baba Harivallabh Mahasabha here yesterday.

Artistes, including Pt Jasraj, Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Budhaditta Mukherjee, Kalapini Komkali, Salil Bhatt and Ankit Bhatt, Kaushiki Chakraborty Desikan and Yogesh Samsi, would be part of the festival.

General secretary Purnima Beri said that, in addition to other eminent artistes, the presence of husband-wife duos of Sudhir Pande and Amrit Prabha Pandey (tabla jugalbandi) and Kaushiki Chakraborty and husband Parthasarthy Desikan (who would give solo vocal performances on December 25 and 26, respectively) would be worth watching.

Treasurer Rakesh Dada said in all Rs 25 lakh had been spent on the festival with Rs 16 lakh being spent only on the artistes.

The organisers lamented that with artistes’ fees skyrocketing, it sometimes proved difficult for them to bring some of them to the Harivallabh platform.

Dada said institutions like Namdhari Samaj and the Sangeet Natak Academy had been providing help but the commitee needed the government to step in with a regular grant to get the choicest artistes for this sammelan.

“The festival should get a heritage status. Right now it doesn’t has resources it needs,” added Dada.

The Lifetime Achievement Award would be presented to gurbani kirtan exponent Bhai Gurcharan Singh, while tabla exponent Kale Ram and Nasib Chand would be honoured with the Sangeet Seva Award.

The organisers revealed that the construction of the Shree Baba Harivallabh Sangeet and Research Academy was almost complete. It houses eight classrooms, archive gallery, meeting rooms, an auditorium (with a seating capacity of 350 people), an office and a reception.

What came as a disappointment is that the music contest wouldn’t take place in the academy as was being anticipated. It would instead take place in Shri Ram Hall on the mandir premises like every year.

Gurdaspur, December 18
The Gurdaspur police today arrested two more members of the Randeep Kumar Topi gang of criminals. In the process, the police almost wiped out a bunch of criminals from the region.

The gang had created a fear psychosis among top police officials with a majority of them perplexed at the sophisticated modus operandi adopted by the members in committing crime, including theft of luxury cars and preparation of fake registration certificates (RCs).

SSP Varinder Pal Singh confirmed that two members of the Topi gang, Kulwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh, were arrested by the CIA staff last evening.

The SSP said with the arrest of these two, the gang had been marginalised.

Cases under various sections of the IPC have been registered against Kulwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh at Narot Jaimal Singh police station.

The SSP confirmed that Dinanagar SHO Sukhpal Singh played a vital role in arresting the accused.

As yet, based on the interrogation of main accused Randeep Kumar Topi, who used to move around using aliases like Vijay Topi and Topi King, 10 persons owing allegiance to the gang have been identified and seven arrested, including five, who were nabbed in Kharar two weeks ago.

The panic created by the Topi gang had recently forced the DGP to summon a meeting of SSPs where the ways and means to nab the gang were discussed.

Meanwhile, Dorangla SHO Joga Singh, who gunned down two members of the gang in Kharar a few days ago, came out of self-imposed exile to narrate the sequence of events that led to the Kharar shootout. Joga Singh was conferred the Police Medal by DGP P.S. Gill at Pathankot last week.

Joga claimed that nearly 45 cases of theft, murder and extortion had been registered against Randeep Topi and his gang was instrumental in stealing more than 250 luxury cars from Delhi, which were later sold on fake RCs in Jammu and Srinagar.

Hoshiarpur, December 18
Fake travel agents have sent a gullible person to Sri Lanka instead of sending him to Italy.

The Mukerian police has booked Raghbir Singh, son of Gokal Chand, and his wife Jyoti of Mukerian, Victor and Hira Lal, sons of Arjan Dass, Pinki, wife of Victor, and Dilbag Singh of the local Subhash Nagar under Sections 406, 420 and 120 B of the IPC in this connection.

According to police sources, Rakesh Kumar of Bambowal alleged that the travel agents took Rs 4 lakh to send him to Italy. But instead of sending him to Italy they sent him to Sri Lanka.

After coming back from Sri Lanka when he demanded his money, they threatened him with dire consequences.

The police got an inquiry conducted by the NRI police station and on its recommendations, the Mukerian police has registered a case. No arrest has been made so far.