B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Pilot project starts from Faridkot today
Faridkot, October 1
The beginning of a state-level campaign by the state government in Faridkot on Tuesday to create awareness about cancer and its early detection is set to dispel many notions about the dreaded disease.

Meter gauge train has its last run
Abohar, October 1
With the flagging off of the 52408 Hanumangarh-Sadulpur passenger train by the Bikaner Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Shyam Sunder Gupta last night, the 85-year- long journey of the meter gauge train came to an end.

National Voluntary Blood Donation Day
Only two donors turn up for noble cause in Muktsar dist
Muktsar, October 1
Even though the Punjab State Blood Transfusion Council spent a huge amount on advertisements to make people aware about the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day today, yet it could hardly elicit any response in Muktsar district, as only two people turned up at the lone government-run blood bank at the Civil Hospital in Muktsar to donate blood voluntarily.

Pilot project starts from Faridkot today
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 1
The beginning of a state-level campaign by the state government in Faridkot on Tuesday to create awareness about cancer and its early detection is set to dispel many notions about the dreaded disease.

On Tuesday, over 1000 trained volunteers of the health department will fan out to different villages and towns of the district. They will not only educate the people about the symptoms of the disease and clarify commonly held ideas, but also help in the detection of the disease at an early stage, said Dr Sanjeev Sethi, the nodal officer for the cancer awareness campaign in Faridkot.

Faridkot, which has been chosen for the pilot project on cancer awareness, has engaged not only the trained nursing staff but also senior nursing students in various colleges. They have been given training for two weeks to help them make prima facie detection of cancer and educate people about the disease, said Dr Gurdit Singh, Civil Surgeon, Faridkot.

For the rural areas of the district with a population of 4.10 lakh, 535 health workers have been employed. Every worker has to visit around 25 houses.

During these visits, the health workers will provide every family with a coloured chart with printed symptoms and diagrams of cancer. Every member of the family would be physically examined and the family's history would be noted down.

"The last five years' history about the disease in a family would be tracked and every person with a prima facie symptom will be referred to the medical officer in the area," said Dr Sethi.

After this, it would be for the medical officer to recommend further tests or examination of the suspected patient at the local civil hospital or the medical college.

For the urban areas in Faridkot district, with a population of 2 lakh, the health department was facing an acute shortage of health workers for the campaign.

So, the health department is now relying upon 350 senior students in various nursing and paramedical colleges for these services. These students have been imparted training for two weeks about the physical symptoms of the disease, said Dr Sethi.

"We are hopeful of completing the campaign in the next one month and hope that besides creating awareness about the disease, it will help in checking cancer in its early stage," he said.

Meter gauge train has its last run
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, October 1
With the flagging off of the 52408 Hanumangarh-Sadulpur passenger train by the Bikaner Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Shyam Sunder Gupta last night, the 85-year- long journey of the meter gauge train came to an end.

Hundreds of commuters thronged Shereka and other railway stations till midnight to witness the gala event and garlanded the train staff besides the station masters.

From today onwards, only goods trains will run on the meter gauge line for a few days to transport the material required for gauge conversion.

Before boarding the 19224 Jammu Tawi-Ahmedabad express train, the DRM interacted with officials at the Hanumangarh railway station and asked them to develop it as an ideal station equipped with high class amenities. He also directed the engineering staff to speed up work on the Hanumangarh-Sriganganagar broad gauge conversion.

The first meter gauge train on this section was introduced on August 1, 1923. With the completion of gauge conversion, express trains from Bathinda can also be run on this route.

The DRM congratulated the loco pilot Ram Niwas and his assistant Vijay Kumar besides the guard RS Shekhawat before flagging off the meter gauge train. Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM) LK Vyas, RPF senior commandant Kamaljot Brar, Deputy

Chief Engineer SR Sangwan were also present on the occasion. 

National Voluntary Blood Donation Day
Only two donors turn up for noble cause in Muktsar dist
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, October 1
Even though the Punjab State Blood Transfusion Council spent a huge amount on advertisements to make people aware about the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day today, yet it could hardly elicit any response in Muktsar district, as only two people turned up at the lone government-run blood bank at the Civil Hospital in Muktsar to donate blood voluntarily.

The two who turned up to donate blood were incidentally students, namely, Mintu (20) and Gurpreet Singh (19).

Moreover, not a single camp was organised in the district in this regard today.

"Nearly 10 units of blood were collected by the blood bank. Among them, two persons donated blood voluntarily and the rest gave their blood in exchange of another blood group for their relatives or friends," said a hospital employee at the blood bank.

It may be mentioned that the district has four civil hospitals located at Muktsar, Gidderbaha, Malout and Badal. But the facility of blood bank is available only at Muktsar. In the two hospitals at Gidderbaha and Malout, only the facility to store blood has been provided. And in Badal village, even the blood storage facility is not there.

Dr Amanpreet Kaur, in-charge, Blood Bank, Civil Hospital, Muktsar, said, "We used to organize a blood donation camp on this day every year. But this time we did not organize any such camp. That is why the number of voluntary donors remained less."

She further said that on September 26 and 28, two blood donation camps were organized in the district and the response was quite good.