HEALTH

Artificial Limbs Centre to be functional soon
By Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — An artificial limbs centre (ALC) catering to battle casualties is expected to get functional at the Western Command Hospital, Chandimandir in about a month’s time.

In the wake of the Kargil conflict, the central government had, in July last year, approved the establishment of three ALCs in Chandi Mandir, Guwahati and Bangalore, besides the upgradation of ALCs at Delhi and Lucknow.

An amount of Rs.14.40 crore has been sanctioned from the National Defence Fund for these projects in addition to the upgradation of vocational training facilities at several spinal cord injury centres.

As per available information, there are 38 men of Operation Vijay undergoing treatment at ALCs. These include 13 cases involving injury in upper limbs and 25 cases involving lower limbs. Imported, state-of-the-art lightweight artificial limbs with movable joints were also approved for these men.

Sources say that some of the equipment and tools for the centre have already arrived while remaining equipment is in the process of procurement. The construction of the building is in progress and till the time it is complete, the ALC will function from a temporary accommodation within the hospital premises. ‘’The centre will become operational as soon as the requisite equipment is received here,’’ a source said.

The centre will include a workshop, where artificial limbs will be assembled and modified. Physiotherapy as well as training to use these limbs will also be provided.

The requisite components of the limbs, made from wood, plastic and leather, will be obtained from the artificial limb centre at Pune — the nodal centre for all ALCs. These will be assembled at the centre here in accordance with the individual requirements of the patients. The estimated cost of one limb, depending on the size, is between Rs 2,000 and 4,000.

The Pune centre has also been upgraded and new instruments and tools costing about Rs. 1.24 lakh have been procured in addition to 12 strap-cutting machines and other equipment. A double-needle leather sewing machine for fabricating leather parts is also being procured.

This apart, four below the knee carbon fibre endosketetal modular prosthesis have been fabricated by the 515 Army Base Workshop.

Besides, spinal cord injury centres located at Command Hospitals in Chandi Mandir and Lucknow and the Base Hospital, Delhi, are being upgraded, with special attention on vocational training facilities. An amount of Rs. 60 lakh per centre has been released from the National Defence Fund for the purpose

SPORT

19 honoured on Republic Day
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — In all, 19 players, including 15 skaters, 12 of these of Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula, were honoured at the 51st Republic Day function by Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Chairman of the Planning Board of Haryana, at the Sector 5 ground in Panchkula on Wednesday.

The other four sportspersons who were honoured were cricketers.

Certificates of merit were given to 12 Haryana skaters for doing well at the international, national and state levels. Three skaters were of St Stephen's School, Sector 21, Panchkula.

The skaters of Hansraj Public School who were honoured included Meenakshi Kohli, Priyanka and Shreya — bronze medal winners at the Asian Skating Championshp at Shanghai in October past year and gold medal winners at the National Championship and the National School Games. Karishma Ahuja won a gold medal in the under-10 section at the National Championship. Pankaj Jain, Gautam Narang and Daksh Gaddi won gold medals in the under-14 boys' section. Shalabh Bhattiwal, Varun Sharma, Ashish Sharma and Nishant Dahiya won bronze medals in the under-19 boys' section and Ritika Sharma won gold medal in the under-19 section at the National School Games.

The skaters of St Stephen's-21 who were awarded included Amrita (bronze medal at the Asian Skating Meet, gold medal at the National Skating Championship); Joshita Grover (gold medal in the under-14 girls' section); Varinder Pal (silver medal in the under-10 boys' section at the National Championship). All these skaters were coached at the Hansraj Skating Club by Balwinder Singh.

Badminton meet: The Chandigarh Badminton Association will conduct the Chandigarh State Badminton Championships in all age groups from February 4 to 7 at the Sector 42 Indoor Hall, according to Mr T.P.S. Puri, Secretary of the association.

The matches will be organised in the following age groups: Under-10, under-13, under-16, under-19, seniors (boys and girls, veterans — above 35, above 45 and above 55). Men's and women's senior teams will also be selected and these will take part in the Senior National Badminton Championships to be held at Kochi (Kerela) in the last week of February.

Entries close with Rajeev Tuli or Virinder Mehta at the Sector 42 Indoor Hall or Ms Promila at Home Science College Centre, by February 2.

Rowing tourney: The Chandigarh State Rowing Championship will be organised at Lake Club, Chandigarh, on February 6, according to Mr Kailash Nath, Secretary of the Chandigarh Rowing Association.

The events to be conducted include single sculls, double sculls, coxless pairs and coxless fours.

The team for the Senior National Rowing Championship to be held at Pune in the last week of February will also be selected on the basis of performance in this meet. Entries close with the Secretary of the association at Lake Club on February 3.

Cricket matches: The Punjab Financial Corporation Employees Welfare Association (PFCEWA) will organise the VIth Inter-Financial Instituition Cricket Tournament from February 6. Entries close with Mr Dharam Deepak at 95-98, Sector 17-B, by February 1.

LIC, OIC to meet in final
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The Life Insurance Corporation of India will take on Oriental Insurance Company Limited in the final of the Inter-Financial Sector Cricket Tournament, the semi-finals of which were played here yesterday.

In the first semi-final, the Oriental Insurance team beat Canara Bank by nine wickets while in the second semi-final, the LIC team beat the United India Insurance team by 25 runs. Vipin Sharma scored 45 runs for the OIC team, while Kuldeep Tikku made 64 runs for the LIC team.

Brief scores (first semi-final) — Canara Bank — 99 for six in 20 overs (Raghu Nandan 32, Sikri 22 n.o., Charandas 22, Sandeep Mahajan 3 for 7, Pawan 2 for 26); OIC — 103 runs for one wicket in 18.3 overs (Vipin Sharma 45, Sandeep Mahajan 38).

Second semi-final: LIC — 143 runs for four wickets in 20 overs (Kuldeep Tikku 64, Ashwani Sharma 25, Amarjeet 22, Ajay 2 for 19, Rakesh 2 for 33); United India — 118 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs (Ajay 42, Raj Kumar 20, Gundeepak Malhotra 3 for 15, Arvinder Sharma 2 for 7, Amarjeet Kumar 2 for 21).

The final will be played on February 6 at DAV College grounds, Sector 10, at 9.30 a.m.

Official dead: O.P. Puri, District Sports Officer of the UT Sports Department died on January 24 at Government Hospital, Sector 32, due to a sudden liver failure. He had been hospitalised a few days ago for the treatment of diabetes. He was 57 and was to retire in October. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. He was cremated with full honours on January 25 at the Sector 25 cremation ground where prominent sportspersons and officials were present, including the Director Sports of the UT, Mr Ramsekhar.

Puri, an ex-Air Force officer, had joined the department in 1976 as a volleyball coach and was also a qualified umpire trained in the UK. He was made the DSO in 1996.

The kirya ceremony will take place on February 5 at 2551, Sector 19-C, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Coaches selected: The Corporate Office of the Sports Authority Of India in New Delhi has selected six coaches of the Northern Centre (SAI) to be on the panel of experts under its development plan for training players. The six coaches are K.D.S. Nagra (weightlifting), Sandhya Kaul (gymnastics), R.K. Bhanot (football), Jitender Vaidya (badminton) and Sukhwinder Singh (athletics).

Meanwhile, K.D.S. Nagra, a senior weightlifting coach, has also been made Coordinator to monitor the coaches in Ropar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

ADMINISTRATION

Jacob insists on one-stop facility at DC office
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 27 — The Administrator of Chandigarh, Lieut- Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), during his visit to the Deputy Commissioner's office today, emphasised on the need to have an integrated computerised system that would evolve a ''one-stop facility'' to cut out malpractices and red tape in the process involving transactions relating to property and to ensure transparency in the system.

This can also provide clearances to the public right from allotment of land to issuance of the completion certificate. The care should be taken that a person constructing a house or building in Chandigarh should not have to run from one office to another to get various clearances. He said that if necessary building bylaws could be modified. The Adviser informed the Administrator that a committee formed to review bylaws was already undertaking this exercise, after getting suggestions from the public.

During his 90-minute stay, General Jacob also visited the public counters issuing driving licence and vehicle registration branch and other public dealing branches. He discussed with the Deputy Commissioner the possible steps which could be taken to minimise the harassment of public coming to these offices. The Deputy Commissioner explained to the Administrator that over 650 to 700 licences and vehicle registration certificates were issued every day by this branch.

He suggested that early steps should be taken for the introduction of smart cards. He said that there should be a network between vehicle licensing and registration branch and the traffic police. He suggested that the computer server of the Estate Office and the police control room should be linked with a leased lines so that the police could have ready access to the data in the server of the vehicle registration branch. He asked the SSP, Mr Ajay Kashyap, to give ''smart card readers'' to the traffic constables so that they could check the particulars of any suspected vehicle on the spot.

He was accompanied by Mrs Vineeta Rai, Adviser to the Administrator, Mr Rakesh Singh, Finance Secretary, and Mr N.K. Jain, Home Secretary.