Doon Hospital ICU functional
Dehradun, October 3
Despite the shortage of staff, the Doon Hospital authorities managed to make the new four-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) functional today.

Mussoorie, October 3
Taking cognisance of the news item published in The Tribune on October 2 titled “Illegal limestone mining continues in forest area,” a Municipal Council team visited the site here today on the Khattapani road to nab a contractor allegedly indulging in illegal limestone mining and using the substandard material for the construction of a sidewall.

However, the team could not find the contractor or labourers at the site. The team did not look into the use of substandard material at the site.

Municipal Council executive officer Rohtash Sharma said engineers had been sent to the site to assess any irregularities and after the investigation, they would submit their report in day or two.

Sharma further said if any irregularity came to the notice of the MC, the payment to contractor would be stopped immediately.

Sharma also said as the matter of illegal mining was of different department, therefore they could not take any action in this regard.

MC president OP Uniyal said the contractors were given full amount for the job and if they were found using substandard material, strict action would be initiated.

Residents of the town, however, alleged that the delay in inspection had provided a safe passage to the contractor who stopped the work fearing punitive action against him.

Meanwhile, the state Mining Department has finally decided to look into the matter and said a team would be sent from Dehradun for further investigation tomorrow.

Dehradun, October 3
Hundreds of telephone lines have been damaged due to careless digging by the Jal Nigam staff near the Survey chowk. The nigam, in collaboration with Asian Development Bank, is laying sewer lines in the city.

Managing Director, BSNL, Ashok Kumar Shrivastav, has slammed the PWD for not informing the BSNL officials before undertaking digging. He said had they been informed about digging in advance they would have taken precautions and save the phone lines. “They began digging during night when it is not possible to see wires buried in the soil. They must do such work in daylight in the presence of the officials of the telephone department,” he said.

He said now they would have to check each and every phone line and the process might take a few more days to complete.

Chairman, PWD, Lalit Mohan said it was not the handiwork of his staff but a team of the Jal Nigam working along with the ADB staff to lay sewerage is responsible for it.

Superintendent Engineer, Jal Nigam, SC Jain said the matter was discussed with the BSNL Chairman before undertaking digging. He, however, admitted that they lapsed on not informing about the digging done at night time. Citing time constraints, he said they could not always work during daytime.

Dehradun, October 3
Despite the shortage of staff, the Doon Hospital authorities managed to make the new four-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) functional today.

Though the hospital authorities have deputed six staff nurses, one anaesthetist and four class-four staff members, the ICU is still short of staff against the sanctioned strength.

The four-bed ICU unit has four ventilators and other state-of-the-art equipment that have to be monitored round the clock by a dedicated staff. “We are still facing shortage of four nurses, the role of staff nurses is vital at the ICU. They are the real care providers and man the ICU all 24 hours.

According to norms, the minimum requirement of staff nurses should be between 8-16,” said Dr BC Pathak, CMS of Doon Hospital.

He said the hospital was banking on new recruitments to tide over the staff crunch.

Against the sanctioned 10 staff nurses, only six have been posted at the ICU. The hospital also has to post three General Duty Medical Officers (GDMOs).

The sanctioned strength for the ICU staff is four ward boys, four Class IV cleaners, one nurse, and one sister in charge.

The mortality rate among patients visiting the ICU is high as most of them are terminally ill and cannot survive beyond 24 hours after being admitted. “Nurses have to constantly monitor the vitals statistics of the patients on the ventilator,” said Dr S. D Joshi, Senior Physician, Doon Hospital.

Dehradun, October 3
Serving and retired medicos participated in the elections held today to elect office-bearers of the Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS), the state-level union for the medicos.

Election officer RK Pant said 70 per cent voting took place in Dehradun district. “A total of 168 doctors voted from the district, out of a total of 200 doctors registered here,” said Dr Pant.

Contenders for the various posts include Dr L M Upreti, Dr BC Ramola and Dr Janardhan Pangti for the posts of president; Dr DP Joshi, Dr TK Pant for the posts of general secretary; Dr Tuhin Kumar, Dr RK Singh, Dr Parveen Kumar for the posts of additional general secretary (Kumaon) and Dr Birender Jangpangi and Dr MS Rawat for the posts of vice-president, headquarters.

Dr RK Pant said voting was held in all districts barring Udham Singh Nagar where curfew had been imposed.

Dr Bipin Chand Pant, Sanjeev Goswami and Dr NS Bisht were elected unopposed for the posts of vice-president (General), additional general secretary (Kumaon) and treasurer, respectively.

Dr L M Upreti, who is contesting for the post of president has promised to implement the provisions of the DACP.

While Dr BC Ramola fighting for the same post has also promised to implement the DACP, the Security Act for doctors, a transparent transfer policy for doctors and also opposes the projects being given on public-private partnership.

The results would be declared after the elections in Udham Singh Nagar. 

Dehradun, October 3
Dehradun District Magistrate Dilip Jawalkar today said the vendors who submitted their applications for putting up crackers stalls from October 4 to October 10 would be provided with licence on October 15.

While those who submitted the applications from October 10 to October 15 would get the licence on October 20. He further said the licence would be issued only after the inspection of the place where the stalls had to be put up by officials.

The DM has banned putting up stalls at various parts of the city included Paltan Bazar, Dhamawala Market, Kotwali towards Clock Tower, near Jama Masjid, Moti Bazar, Dispensary Road, Hanuman Chowk, Jhanda Mohalla, Band Bazar, Anand Chowk, Survey Chowk towards DAV College, Karanpur Market and all areas that have narrow lanes. 

Mussoorie, October 3
A room on the ground floor of a multi-storey house was gutted in fire that broke out due to short-circuit this morning at Char Dukan in the Cantonment area here today.

Fire tenders rushed to the spot and doused the fire after a struggle of one hour.

Belongings of labourers, including cash of Rs 20,000 that was kept under a pillow, had reduced to ash before the fire tenders arrived.

According to the police, neighbours witnessed a cloud of smoke emanating from the room around 10 am and informed the police and fire station immediately. The labourers residing in the room who had left for work early morning, were also informed about the fire instantly.

Fire station in charge M Khanduri said they could have reached early but due to the traffic congestion at Landour Bazar, several precious minutes were wasted.

He also said the absence of water-hydrants in the area was also the cause for concern as their presence in case of major outbreak could assist the fire tenders in fighting fire.

The local residents were of the view that the water-hydrants were removed by the cantonment board a few years back due to unknown reasons. No loss of life was reported in the incident here. 

Dehradun, October 3
Principal of Unison World School Veena Singh had the opportunity to have dinner with Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, in New Delhi in September-end.

Veena had attended a reception thrown by Blair to which only four Principals from all over India were invited besides the Ambassadors of other countries, said Trilok Singh Bisht, Dean (activity) of the school.

Unison World School has worked for the Face to Faith, a foundation and has also excelled in the “Vote for the Child Rights”, an international online debate on burning issues. The school has been holding video conferencing with students of other countries on a regular basis in an effort to create the global citizens.

Dehradun, October 3
The final of the Inter-Section Volleyball competition was held at Rashtriya Indian Militray College (RIMC) here today.

The tournament started on September 30 and the final match was played today. A total of 12 matches were held. The competition was divided into categories of juniors and seniors. This was the first time where RIMC

organised a volleyball tourney at the section level. Volleyball is one of the most popular games played in the armed forces of the country.

Overall results.

Juniors: Most upcoming player- Cadet Rajeev Ranjan (Ranjit section), Best Player- Cadet Mohammed Salman (Pratap section), Most Valuable Player- Cadet Akshat Raj (Pratap section)

Seniors: Best Player- Cadet Lalit Thapliyal (Pratap section), Most Valuable Player- Cadet Dhruv Gusain (Shivaji section)

Overall positions.

1st- Shivaji section, 2nd- Chandragupta section, 3rd- Pratap section and 4th- Ranjit section.

The chief guest for the event was Col Pankaj K Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC. He was very impressed by the excellent performance by the cadets. He was happy to note that even though the competition was organised for the first time, all sections played very well and showcased fantastic skills.

The other dignitaries present were Wg Cdr SK Thapliyal, Maj SR Sahu, KS Ahalawat, CS Vishwakarma, DN Thapliyal and PN Naik. 

Dehradun, October 3
In a closely contested match, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy got the better of Sunrise Academy by two wickets here today during the Shri Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys Super 8s Cricket Tournament 2011 being played at The Heritage School.

Batting first, Sunrise set a target of 23 runs at the loss of four wickets in the first innings. In reply, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy’s batsmen got a stiff competition from Sunrise bowlers. However, the former scored 24 for three.

In the second innings, Sunrise could score identical 23 runs giving away five wickets. It’s rival shot back achieving the total target of two innings scoring 23 runs for five wickets.

Lakshya of the winning team who scored 15 runs in total in the two innings was adjudged the best player of the match.

Meanwhile, host The Heritage School is slated to meet Hilton School and The Aryan School is scheduled to face The Asian School in tomorrow’s matches.