Pioneer in laparoscopic surgery

DR KULDEEP SINGH, a consultant surgeon, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, who has been appointed member of the board of directors of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation, is a pioneer in laparoscopic surgery in northern India. New techniques invented by him to make laparoscopic surgery safe and more effective in the developing countries have received recognition throughout the world.

A member of the governing council of the Association of Surgeons of India from north zone and a representative of India in the board of governors of the Asian Laparoscopic Surgeons Association, Dr Kuldeep Singh has attended several national and international conferences and training workshops to demonstrate his techniques. Recipient of a state award in 1997, he is a member of the teaching faculty of Johnson and Johnson, Ethicon Division.

He says he would work and contribute to gain the confidence of common and poor people in the corporation by providing better healthcare. He is for providing all specialised services like medicine, surgery, gynae dental, etc at the block and tehsil levels so that the common and poor man need not go to bigger hospitals or to the private clinic. A majority of problems like blood pressure, diabetes, tuberculosis and eye ailments could be managed at the lower level by specialists.

He is keen to train surgeons in laparoscopic surgery to take this facility to rural hospitals as this surgery can be made available with a minimum cost and the patient can recover faster after the surgery. He has called upon surgeons concerned to gain adequate experience to perform this procedure otherwise this could lead to complications.

Road junction of chaos

Nurpur-Chowgan is an important station on the Pathankot-Mandi-Manali highway. It serves as a junction for vehicles heading for or coming from Chamba, Dalhousie. etc. Nearly 300 public service vehicle cross this point every day. A much larger number of goods vehicles and private ones too ply on the highway. The width of the road is hardly enough to take the flow of heavy traffic. Besides, there is no proper bus stand.

Hundreds of passengers have to get down at the junction to catch connecting buses. The state government has built a shelter on the one side of the road wherein nearly 15 passengers can be accommodated. Unfortunately the shelter is surrounded by a large number of hawkers vending a variety of things, thus hindering movement of traffic. As the flow of vehicular traffic on the road is fast, the rain shelter on the opposite side is of little use to passengers who are required to board the buses. On this side also there are many khokhas fixed on the berm of the road itself, leaving hardly any space for the passengers to stand, much less sit.

One problem is buses stop at the same spot, leaving no space for movement of general vehicles, not required to stop there. That causes avoidable blocks in the free movement of traffic. In addition, a large number of taxis and private vehicles, operating as taxis, hog most of the space on either side of the road, adding to the hardships of the travelling public.

The Himachal Government would do well to have bus stops staggered, construct a separate shelter with sufficient benches on the other (northern) side of the road as well as also allot separate parking places for taxis and private vehicles — till a proper bus stand is created.

New director of research

Research activities in the Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry. Nauni (Solan), are likely to get impetus with Dr R.P. Awasthi as the director of research. He took this responsibility recently after serving as Dean, College of Horticulture, for two years.

Born on January 5, 1941, in Himachal Pradesh, Dr Awasthi did his Ph D in 1969. After serving in different capacities in the Department of Agriculture, Punjab, PAU, Ludhiana, and the HPKV, Palampur, he became chief, scientist, Regional Horticulture Research Station, Mashobra HP and later joined as professor and head, Department of Pomology, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan. He worked as director of research from January 27, 1995, to October 23, 1996. He is a widely travelled person and has published more than 100 research papers, review articles, besides chapters in books on nutrition. high-density plantings, canopy management and orchard soil management of temperate fruits. In addition, he has also edited a book on "Emerging Trends in Temperate Fruit Production in India".

Dr Awasthi was honoured and presented a plaque by the Horticultural Society of India for his contribution to society and for organising a national seminar on "emerging trends in temperate fruit production in India" at Solan. He was also awarded the Vasantrao Naik memorial gold medal for presenting a paper on "export oriented production of temperate fruits — research and strategies" at the national seminar on "export oriented horticulture production — research and strategies" held at the College of Agriculture, Nagpur, in 1993. He was also nominated for the title "Man of the Year, 1997" by the Biographical Institute, Inc. USA.

Dr Awasthi has been instrumental in the introduction of many spur-type varieties of apple such as oregon spur, well spur, hardi spur, sturdi spur, golden spur during 1984 while working at Mashobra and identified other colour mutants such as top red, vance delicious and hardiman, which are now the leading varieties in the state. He has standardised vegetative propagation techniques of pecan and walnut. His research efforts in high density plantings in apple and peach have been demonstrated yielding many times more than the raditional planting system.

Besides, he has standardised the nutritional requirements and has done comprehensive work on the nutrient status, nutrient standards through orchard surveys and a solution culture DRIS norms, deficiency symptoms, foliar nutrition, post-harvest application of urea, nutrient removal, efficient use of fertilisers, fertiliser management and biofertilisers. Moreover, he has developed yield forecasting models in apple.