HEALTH

PGI to charge for refresher courses
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — Refresher courses in various disciplines being offered free of cost by the PGI to doctors working in private and government sectors will now have a fee varying between Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000.

While the fee will be nominal for government-sponsored doctors, it will be higher for those from the private sector, some of whom undertake these courses only to get a stamp of the PGI. Reliable sources disclose that this has been done to discourage such doctors from doing these courses.

A recommendation to this effect was made at a meeting held today, which was chaired by Emeritus Professor, Prof I.C Pathak. The meeting was attended by Acting Director, Prof N.K. Ganguly, who is also the Member Secretary, Dr P.K. Dave, Director of of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Prof R.J. Dash, Head of Endocrinology Department, Prof A.K. Banerjee, Head of Histopathology, Prof S.K. Gupta, Head of Cytology and Gynaecological Pathology, and Prof M.M. Puri, Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University. Among special invitees were the PGI director designate, Dr S.K. Sharma, Deputy Director Administration, Ms P. Sahi, and acting Medical Superintendent, Dr D. Behera. Other academic issues for the forthcoming session were also taken up.

Members also recommended creation of seven posts of assistant professors in different departments of the institute, including the departments of Urology, Nuclear Medicine, Microbiology, Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology and Dermatology. Twelve posts of senior resident in some departments were also recommended.

In another decision, they recommended that PhD research scholars of the institute should be paid stipend at a par with that being paid by the UGC to research scholars in universities. They also recommended a stipend of between Rs 250 and Rs 500 for MSc students during their training period, for instance as speech therapists in the ENT Department or as physiotheraphists.

Modalities for admission tests to various PhD courses in different disciplines were also discussed at length. Requests of certain departments for change in pattern of courses and of admission test were considered. Modification of qualifications for selections to various posts were also recommended.

The recommendations of the Academic Committee are subject to ratification in the Governing Body meeting and the Institute Body meeting, scheduled for March 15.

Meanwhile, Standing Finance Committee, which met in Delhi yesterday, sanctioned finances worth Rs 2 crore for computerisation of the new Out Patient Department and for the renovation of toilets in the hospital.

The meeting was chaired by Mr Javed Chaudhary, Union Health Secretary. Certain posts, required immediately to make the new OPD functional, were also sanctioned at the meeting. These include posts of Deputy Medical Superintendent, Deputy Nursing Superintendent, nurses, technicians, receptionists, security staff and safai karamcharis.

60 provided with intra-ocular lenses
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — The UT Health Department today successfully completed its free intra-ocular lens implant campaign. The campaign was undertaken from January 31 to February 4 in accordance with the instructions from Government of India under the National Programme for Control of Blindness.

According to Dr Joginder Singh, Director Health Services, UT-cum-Vice-Chairman, District Blindness Control Society, 60 intra-ocular lenses were implanted free of cost to poor and needy patients.

About 500 patients were examined at eye camps held in Dadu Majra Colony and Behlana village on January 29 and February 3, respectively. The selected patients were operated for intra-ocular lenses (IOL) surgery at General Hospital, Sector 16, by a team of doctors.

A team of doctors had also organised a free eye camp at village Dhanas on January 31 and selected cases were operated at GMC Hospital.

The expenditure of providing medicines, IOLs, food and spectacles was borne by the District Blindness Control Society.

Fun and frolic at nurses’ fete
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — It was fun and frolic all the way for the nurses of the city hospitals as they enjoyed at the fete organised by the local Chapter of Trained Nurses Association of India here today. The intermittent rain during the day was no dampener for them as they just shifted their venue from the ground adjacent to the SBI branch to the Zakir Hussain hall.

About a dozen stalls of eatables and games were put up by the nurses working in three main hospitals of the city namely PGI, GMCH-32 and General Hospital, Sector 16. Besides this, a few companies had also put up their stalls.

Mrs Rajinder Dhadda, President of the association, said that the funds collected in the fete would be used for promoting the educational activity of the nursing community of the city. The fete was primarily arranged to raise funds and despite cold weather the response to the fete was fairly good, she claimed.

Blood sugar of 95 patients tested
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — Blood sugar of 95 patients was tested at a free diabetes camp organised by Novo Nordisk in Government Polyclinic, Sector 22, here today.

Patients were shown a video film on diabetes education and free literature on diabetes and diet was distributed among them.

Doctors observed that many patients had poor control of blood glucose. Studies have shown that poor control of blood glucose results in late diabetic complications like blindness, kidney failure and heart attack.

These camps are organised with a view to bring awareness among diabetics about diabetic complications and importance of good glycaemic control.

SPORT

Saroj, Bhavna enter doubles final
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — A former Himachal Pradesh badminton champion who is now working at AG (Haryana) in Chandigarh, Saroj Chaudhary, in partnership with Bhavna, beat fancied Mala Gaba and Isha Sharma to enter the women's doubles final on the second day today of the Chandigarh State Badminton Championship being played here at the Sector 42 Indoor Hall. Saroj and Bhavna played a strong game to beat their opponents, 15-12, 15-11.

Neeraj Kapoor created an upset in the under-13 boys' singles by beating second-seed Oscar Bansal in two straight games.

In the veterans' singles (above 35 age group), Rajeev Mehta, a former city player of repute who is now in the defence forces and is currently posted at Allahabad, beat Rajiv Aggarwal in straight games, 15-6, 15-2.

Today due to powercut enforced in the southern sectors, including Sector 42, matches could be played for a few hours only. The matches, however, continued late in the evening.

Other results are as follows: Under-13 boys' singles — Manpreet b Rakesh, 15-3, 15-1; under-16 — Akash Sethi b Narinder, 15-1, 15-12; Puneet b Robin, 15-2, 15-7; girls' singles (under-13) — Harleen b Mehak, 11-1, 11-6; Shilpa b Samridhi, 11-0, 11-2; under-16 — Isha Sharma b Harleen, 11-3, 11-2; Mala Gaba b Kanika, 11-0, 11-2.

Veterans' singles — Rajiv Mehta b Rajiv Aggarwal, 15-6, 15-2; vetarans' doubles (above-35) — Jatinder Mahajan and Anil Mittal b Sanjay Judge and G.S. Bakshi, 15-1, 15-5; M.P. Dogra and Parminder Singh b Vijay Sharma and Ravinder Talwar, 8-15, 15-4, 15-5; doubles (above 45) — Col Raj Parmar and Virinder Mehta b Harwinder and Dr Ashwani Malhotra, 15-2, 15-9.

Athletics meet: Gunveen and Harpreet were declared the best athletes in the 18th annual athletics meet of the Government College for Girls, Sector 42, organised on the college premises, with more than 400 students taking part in it. Earlier, the meet was declared open by Ms Mohini Sharma, Principal of the college. Mr R.K. Jain, Chief Engineer of the Engineering Department of the UT Administration, was the chief guest and he gave away the prizes to various winners. In his address, Mr Jain called upon the girls to balance education with sport. He also awarded more than 200 students who had done well in various events.

The results of various events were as follows: Shot put — Harpreet 1, Upneet 2; discus throw — Harpreet 1, Kanwal 2; javelin throw — Harpreet 1, Sonali 2; high jump — Renu 1, Meenakshi 2; 100 m — Gunveen 1, Gurinder 2; 200 m — Gunveen 1, Kalpana 2; 400 m — Surinder 1, Rajwant 2; long lump — Gunveen 1, Surinder 2.

College meet: Parmender Singh became the fastest runner in the 100 m event at the 42nd annual athletics meet of the Sector 10 DAV College which concluded here today. Sunil Yadav was declared the best athlete and was also awarded the Major Sandeep Sagar Memorial Trophy.

Padma Shri Bahadur Singh Chauhan who was the chief guest was highly impressed by the track record of the college players, including of those who represented India at international meets. He hoped that in future, the college will produce more Asian champions. Earlier, Prof Satish Gandhi, Head of the Sports Department, read out the achievements of the players in the year. He said 47 players of the college represented the PU at the inter-university meets, while 24 sportsmen took part in various national meets.

Results: 100 m — Parmender Singh 1, Sunil Yadav 2, Lakhbir Singh 3; 200 m — Lakhbir Singh 1, Jagmohan Singh 2, Parmender Singh 3; 800 m — Sunil Yadav 1, Vikas Kumar 2, Sunil Kumar 3; 5,000 M — Vikas Kumar 1, Sunil Kumar 2, Krishan Rawat 3; long lump — Mayank Bhushan 1, Manoj Kherwa 2, Sunil Yadav 3; shot put — Gagandeep Singh 1, Devinder Negi 2, Parmender Singh 3.

City skipper: Pala Ram of AG (Audit-Punjab) will lead the Regional Sports Board, Chandigarh, team at the All-India Civil Services Lawn Tennis Tournament to be held in Chennai from February 21 to 27. The trials were held on February 4.

The following is the team: Pala Ram (captain), Deepak Seth, Sumat Kumar, Suresh Kumar Jaswal and Dinesh Kumar of AG ( Audit- Punjab), Gaurav Malhotra, Suresh Wadhwa of AG (Audit- Haryana).

9,000 to run in Servo Marathon today
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 5 — About 9,000 entries were received till today evening for various events in the first Servo Chandigarh Marathon-2000 which will be held tomorrow. The main attraction of the day will be the full marathon (42.195 km) for men and half marathon (21 km) for women. The organisers said the entries for all events except the mini marathon will remain open till 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The other events include a 10-km quarter marathon for boys and girls above the age of 16, a veterans' (above 60 years) marathon and mini marathon (3 km). According to Mr Sanjay Kothari and Mr S.S. Prasad, Senior Vice-President of the National Adventure Club (India), organiser of this meet, there will also be a millennium run open to all.

Some big names of the full marathon include B.S. Lone (Railways), Capt C. Paul Smiles, S. Delvam, Babu Ram Prajapati (Dehradun), Ashok Kumar (17 Bihar Regiment), Zile Singh (First Guard Regiment), Mahadev Gavede (Karnataka). The oldest participant in this marathon, 53-year-old Lal Singh, belongs to Longowal in the Sangrur district.

Some prominent names in the half marathon for women are Rigzen Angmo (Ladakh), Ms Satyabhama (Railways), Dr Babita, Nirmal Kaur, Manjit Kaur (Punjab), Indresh Dhiraj, Sudesh Dhira and Vinod Dhiraj (Ghaziabad).

According to the organisers, all arrangements have been completed to organise the races. Four medical counters have been set up. An escort van has been arranged for to meet any eventuality and 18 refreshment counters, besides 14 sponging counters, have also been set up.

These races will pass through Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar, touching Sukhna Lake, Leisure Valley, Sector 17, shopping plaza, Cricket Stadium at SAS Nagar, City Centre in Panchkula, Red Bishop and other famous landmarks.

The winner will get more than Rs 4 lakh in cash. The winner of the full marathon will get Rs 1 lakh which is highest prize-money among all full marathons in India. The second prize will be of Rs 50,000. Winners of the first 10 positions will get more than Rs 2 lakh. Besides this, holders of position numbers 11 to 50 will be given attractive prizes. The winner of the half marathon will get a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and the second prize will be of Rs 25,000. Top 10 rank holders will get more than Rs 1 lakh combined.

There will also be attractive prizes for holders of upto the 50th rank. The first prize in quarter marathon would be Rs 10,000 and the second Rs 7,500. The first prize in the mini marathon will be Rs 5,000 and the second Rs 4,500.

The winner of the veterans' marathon will get a cash prize of Rs 1,000 and there will be other cash prizes for first five runners.

Those who have to participate in the full, half and quarter marathons, are staying in the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium.

The entries received for full marathon were 65, for half marathon 30, for quarter marathon (boys) 1,945, for quarter marathon (girls) 607, for mini marathon (boys) 4,040, and mini marathon (girls) 1,945.

The numbers of runners in the full and half marathons were expected to rise as the entries would remain open till tomorrow morning, said the organisers.