Bathinda, December 13
The Advanced Cancer Research and Diagnostic Centre (ACRDC), coming up at the industrial growth centre on the Mansa Road, will start functioning in March next year. The OPD of the hospital will be opened in March while the rest of the facilities will become functional in June.

A team of the health department, including the Principal Secretary Health, Vinni Mahajan, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Dr SS Gill, health advisor to Punjab government, Dr KK Talwar, and Dr Anbumani from Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), Mumbai, visited the centre today to review its work.

The office of the Chief Minister, Punjab, has asked the health department to complete the project at the earliest and commission it enabling cancer patients to get facility nearer home.

Capacity of the institute has also been increased from 50-bedded to 100-bedded facility. Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation Limited (HSSCL) is executing the project.

In a meeting convened with the officials of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB), HSSCL and the health department, the team discussed progress of work.

While the TMC is looking after the component of equipment installation, the BFUSH will run the facility. Emphasis was laid on providing adequate space for parking of the vehicles visiting the institute.

The team was informed that the Punjab government was yet to place orders for the equipments. If the government wants to expedite the procedure, the equipments should be ordered at the earliest. Once installed, the equipments will take at least three to four months to become functional, Dr Anbumani told the team.

The equipments to be ordered include Cobalt therapy unit, 1.5 Tesla MRI machine, linear accelerator and other diagnostic machines.

Issue of running a short stay home facility for the patients and their kin was also discussed. The team members felt that industrial houses like Guru Gobind Singh Refinery or National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) could be roped in to run this facility.

Later, the team members took a round of the building under construction to understand the area demarcated for OPD and other installation.

Principal Secretary Health, Vinni Mahajan, observed that the floor being laid on the first floor OPD corridor was slippery and should be changed to avoid any kind of inconvenience to the patients.

She also enquired about small industrial units with which the institute shares its boundary wall. She asked to direct the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to keep a check on the pollutant release levels of these industries and ensure that it was well within permissible limit.

Chief Administrator, BDA, Varinder Kumar Sharma, ADC (development), Sonali Giri, Municipal Commissioner, Vipul Ujwal, Civil Surgeon, Dr Ajay Sahni, and others were also present during the occasion.

Bathinda, December 13
Members of the EGS Teachers’ Union today staged a protest at the Teachers’ Home in favour of their long-pending demands. It is pertinent to mention here that the teachers had climbed atop water tank last month after which they were assured to have a meeting with the Chief Minister of Punjab and other officials of the education department.

The meeting, which was scheduled to be held today, was somehow cancelled after which the teachers assembled at the Teachers’ Home to decide on their plan of action.

The teachers argued that the state government had relieved them from service in 2008 and they were facing difficulty in their lives due to unemployment.

Bathinda, December 13
It seems that special children in the district will have to wait till February to get aids that is to be given to them under the Inclusive Education for the Disabled (IED) programme of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan.

A health expert examines a special child at a camp in Bathinda in August. A file photo

Medical check-up and assessment camps were organised for such children in Bathinda, Rampura and Talwandi Sabo from August 1 to 3. These camps aimed to cover as many as 4,061 children in the district. These children were found to be suffering from one or the other kind of physical or mental disability during a door-to-door survey conducted as part of the Integrated Education for the Disabled (IED) under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan.

Out of the children who were checked by experts from Alimpco Kanpur at these camps over three days, as many as 263 children were identified to be in need of one or in some cases, two medical aids.

The IED coordinators of the district had forwarded requests for five callipers, 102 artificial limbs, 33 tricycles left hand drive, 60 wheelchairs (child size), 23 wheelchairs (adult size), eight adjustable crutches, 11 braille canes, eight braille slates, 24 rolators (child) and 12 rolators (adult).

Speaking to the Bathinda Tribune, district IED coordinator, Barjinder Singh said, “Alimpco is responsible for supplying medical aides to the students being covered under the IED in the entire country. We were expecting to get the aides in December but the company officials have indicated that they may be able to supply only by February.”

He added that the ready-to-use aides such as crutches and wheelchairs can be provided early but the aides which are to be custom-made, such as callipers require time to be made. That may be one of the reasons for the delay in providing the aides to the students.

District Project Coordinator of the IED, District Education Officer (elementary), Dr Amarjit Kaur Kotfatta, said, “The aids will reach the students before March. Under the IED programme, the special children are given aids within a year of the check-up and assessment camps,” she said.

Apart from providing these children with medical aides, the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan would also bear the cost of several orthopaedic surgeries through which the children suffering from club foot, polio, and other orthopaedic problems will undergo surgeries free.

Bathinda, December 13
The city Congress unit demanded better civic amenities and submitted a charter of demands in this context to the municipal commissioner today.

A delegation comprising MC Iqbal Singh Dhillon, Mohan Lal Jhumba, Rupinder Bindra, Kuljit Gogi, Sandeep Soni, Nitin Garg, Sohan Lal Bhagria and others met commissioner Vipul Ujwal.

The delegation demanded solution to long pending problem of stray cattle. They demanded early starting of the mini bus service for the areas located beyond railway lines, which constitutes around 40 per cent population of the city.

The leaders said there was urgent need to improve the cleanliness facility in the city as the staff engaged during the VIP visits, while other areas in the city were neglected. They also demanded better fogging facilities to control the vector borne diseases.

They said no RO water system had been installed in ward number 5. People of this ward are bereft of this basic amenity, which all other wards’ residents are enjoying. They also demanded better drinking water and sewer supply facilities. 

Bathinda, December 13
The state Tobacco Control Cell and Social Network for Education and Health Awareness (SNEHA) held a district level orientation workshop here today.

Speaking on the occasion Dr SP Surila from Sneha said the main aim of arresting tobacco consumption through the anti-tobacco campaign was to save younger generation from consuming tobacco and its products. He said the need of the hour was to educate young generation about the ill effects of tobacco so that they were not caught in the vicious web of its consumption in any form.

He said India had maximum cases of mouth cancer and in 90 per cent of these cases cancer was due to use of tobacco. Out of the eight life threatening diseases in the world, six are caused due to usage of tobacco.

Dr Surila said as many as 57 lac people died due to tobacco related cancer in the year of 2007. Of the every 10 deaths in the world, one is caused due to tobacco. He called upon people from all walks of society to wage a war against the usage of tobacco.

Dr Pushpinder Singh said so far 12 districts in the state had been declared smoke-free. District Health Officer Dr Raghubir Singh Randhawa said in 2013 in Bathinda district 1,102 people were challaned for smoking in public.

Bathinda, December 13
Punjab Arts Council, Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi will organise an art exhibition for the youth at Teachers’ Home in the city. The two-day exhibition will be inaugurated by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla on December 14.

Damanjit Singh Mann, SDM, Bathinda, will be the chief guest during the prize distribution function on December 15. President of the Punjab Lalit Akademi, Harvinder Singh Khalsa will be present as the guest of honour.

The exhibition is being organised in collaboration with the Sardar Sobha Singh Memorial Chittarkar Society, Bathinda. 

Bathinda, December 13
Officials of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery organised an animal check-up camp at Narang village, located on the Punjab-Haryana border. It was the fifth animal check-up camp. At the earlier four camps around 3,000 animals have been examined and given free medicines.

Today, around 109 families who are into animal rearing, turned up at the camp with more than 1,100 animals. Retired Assistant Director, Animal Husbandry, Punjab, Dr Avtar Singh Mahal, examined the animals with his team.

Dr Mahal said earlier animal rearing was an allied business of farming community. “We have reached the zenith of agriculture where more improvisation is not expected. With this, the dairy farming and animal rearing has turned into a full-fledged business. Buying animals and caring for them has become an expensive task. We need to care for our animals like we care for our priceless assets,” he said.

Refinery officials Vikrant Puri and Waheguru Pal Singh were also present.