HEALTH

Multi-speciality hospital
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Feb 8 — A 100-bed multi-speciality hospital in Phase IX here — Silver Oaks — perhaps one of the first of its kind in the township and the region, is due to be inaugurated on February 10.

Built over an area of 5,850 square yards, the hospital proposes to have a 24-hour trauma centre and other medical facilities, besides providing free medical care to the poor and the needy.

The hospital has been set up by Dr Akhil Bhargava, a cardiologist, and Dr Manjari Bhargava, a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Mr Rajnish Rametra, a technology expert based in USA.

This six-storeyed hospital is equipped with facilities for medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics surgery, urology and plastic surgery. According to Dr Manjari, the hospital would also deliver “healthy benefits” for different age-groups, which would include various tests and consultations as a package available at a special price.

Hospital staff to intensify stir
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — Employees of Sector 16 General Hospital have decided to intensify the agitation with effect from Thursday if the authorities do not consider their demand for grant of patient allowance.

Mr Kanwaldip Singh, President of the Joint Action Committee, pointed out that the Union Ministry of Health had, vide letter dated January 2, 1999, directed the authorities to pay revised rates of patient care allowance to Group C and D (Non-Ministerial) employees working in hospitals and CGHS dispensaries with effect from December 28, 1998. He alleged that while it was being paid to employees of the PGI, they were not being paid the same since 1992.

Lecture on AIDS organised
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Feb 8 — The Mohali Industries Association (MIA) in collaboration with the CII organised an interactive lecture on AIDS for industrialists and industrial workers at MIA Bhavan in Industrial Area, Phase 7 here yesterday. Dr Rajan Gupta, a Senior Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Labortary, USA, spoke on the occasion.

During a two-session lecture, Dr Gupta touched upon the global disaster created by HIV/AIDS with focus on India. He stressed upon the need for healthcare tie-up for workers. Mr S.S. Sandhu, President of the association, assured that the industry would take adequate measures for the health of its workers. He urged the industrialists to get their workers immunized against Hepatitis-B.

Workshop on new drug development
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — The second day of the ongoing national workshop on clinical pharmacology at the PGI was marked by various sessions on the process of new drug development.

In his lecture on “The Clinical Development of a New Drug’’ , Dr R.D Kulkarni from Mumbai pointed out that the new drug development now is a highly commercial and regulated process. He revealed that of the 100 compounds taken for development 10 or even les ultimately become successful in the market. Hence, costly clinical studies must be planned and executed carefully so that the bad compound are weeded out at the outset. Dr Kulkarni said that the regulatory authorities are concerned with human rights of subjects who participate in clinical trials and also to prevent fraudulent results. Therefore, regulations insist that all planned studies must confom to the guidelines of good clinical practice.

Explaining the process, he said that in the clinical development of a new drug first human pharmacology is studied on 20-80 healthy subjects. If the drug is found safe in these volunteers, it is tested in a small number of patients admitted in the hospital to explore the efficacy in disease and safety in patients.These studies are carried out in 100-500 patients. If the drug is found reasonably safe on patients, double blind controlled trials are conducted on patients in natural surroundings. Usually 3000 to 5000 patients participate in such studies. If the drug proves to be safe and effective in these studies, it is permitted to be marketed. After going in the market, the drug is under surveillance for 1-2 years and if any serious adverse event occurs, the drug may be withdrawn from the market. Hence it is crucial that clinical studies are planned and executed meticulously and all observations should be critically evaluated so that drug recall is not necessitated.

Later, Dr P Pandhi spoke on protocol designing. The success of the trial depends upon good planning and preparation. He said that properly written protocol is important for the success of clinical trial. In the afternoon, there was a practical demonstration of pharmacokinetics and hemodynamics. A group discussion on preclinical toxicity data assessment was also held.

SPORT

Kirandeep, Nardev win
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — Kirandeep Kaur in the women's section and Nardev Singh in the men's section, emerged winners in the single scull event at the Chandigarh State Rowing Championship which was organised here at Sukhna Lake. The events conducted were singles scull, double scull, coxless pairs and coxless fours. Nearly 50 men and women took part in this one-day meet organised by the Chandigarh Rowing Association. Mr T.C. Gupta, President of the association, gave away the prizes to the winners.

Results: Singles scull (men's) — Nardev Singh 1, Dalal Khan 2, Mukesh Kumar 3; coxless pairs — Dalip Kumar, Tejinder Singh 1, Bhupinder Singh and Jatinder Pal 2; Avtar Singh and Santokh Singh 3; double scull — Nardev Singh and Dalal Khan 1, Dalip Kumar and Santokh Singh 2, Choginder Gupta 3; coxed four — Guramneet Singh Mangat, Bhupinder Singh, Jatinder Pal and Karun Mukesh (cox) 1, Dinesh Arora, Arvind Sehgal, Shubhjot Chadha and Gurinder Singh Karan (cox) 2, Avtar Singh, Santokh Singh, Darshan Lal, Gurpreet Manphool (cox) 3.

Women: Single scull — Kirandeep Kaur 1, Ranjana 2, Meera Devi 3; coxless pair — Manjula and Babita 1, Shantima and Kiran 2, Salina and Meera Devi 3; double scull — Renuka and Ranjana 1, Shantima and Salina 2; Manjula and Reena Biswas 3; coxed four — Manjula, Babita, Ranjana and Renuka, Reena Biswas (cox) 1, Meera Devi, Kirandeep Kaur, Shantima, Salina, Poonam (cox) 2, Preeti, Kiran, Nirmal and Gurpreet, Ambika Badh (cox) 3.

Junior girls — Kirandeep Kaur 1, Kiran 2, Gurpreet Kaur 3; junior boys (single scull) — Navjot Khaira 1, Vishal Bhardwaj 2, Karan Singla 3; coxless pair — Avtar Singh and Gurpreet Singh 1, Aijeshwar Singh and Hari Narain 2; double scull — Navjot Khaira and Harsimran Brar 1, Amritpal Singh and Surjit Kumar 2, Karan and Ankit 3.

Coxed four — Harsimran Brar, Gurpreet Singh, Avtar Singh and Amritpal Singh, Vishal Bhardwaj (cox) 1, Aijeshwar Pratap Singh, Surjit, Karun, Raman and Hari Narain (cox) 2.

Inter-college soccer: Government College, Sector 46, Chandigarh, won by an solitary goal against DAV College, Hoshiarpur, today in the Panjab University Inter-College Inter-Zonal Football 'A' Division (men) Tournament being played at the PU grounds here.

In another match, SGGS Khalsa College, Mahilpur, beat Guru Nanak College, Moga, 9-0.

In the first match, Atish scored the lone goal for winners in the 65th minute of the match. In the second match, Sukhvir Singh and Vijay Kumar scored two goals each, while Parminder Singh, Jagjit Randhwa, Dharminder Singh, Rupinder Singh and Manjeet Singh scored a goal each for the winners.

St Joseph's win karate trophy
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — St Joseph's High School, Sector 44, won the overall trophy in the VIIIth Chandigarh State Karate Championship organised by the Amateur Karate Association of Chandigarh which concluded here yesterday evening at the Sector 10 Skating Rink. MDAV Club, Sector 22, got the runners-up trophy.

Mr Raj Kumar 'Hamdard', a social worker, donated Rs 11,000 to the association and also gave away prizes to the winners.

The final results are as follows: Sub-junior girls (below 17 kg) — Nitika Sharma 1, Rakhi 2; below 22 kg — Shubhneet Kaur 1, Japji Kaur 2; below 25 kg — Loveleen 1, Vibha 2, Shefali 3; below 28 kg — Sandeep 1, Jasmine 2; below 34 kg — Pooja 1, Ritu 2; below 38 kg — Manpreet Kaur 1, Radha Ravi 2; below 40 kg — Sunpreet Kaur 1, Neetu Sahota 2, Ishneet Kaur 3; below 44 kg — Meenu 1, Aarti Sharma 2, Sonika 3; Seniors (below 48 kg) — Monika 1, Monika Teji 2; below 55 kg — Shabnam Verma 1, Manju 2.

Boys: Below 17 kg — Jugad Singh 1, Kamal Sharma 2, Rishav Aggarwal 3; below 20 kg — Prince 1, Himanshu 2, Anmol 3; below 23 kg — Savit 1, Gurpreet 2, Pankaj 3; below 29 kg — Karanvir 1, Gurpreet 2, Abhin 3; below 32 kg — Karan Shorya 1, Deepak 2,Vinod 3; below 35 kg — Damar Bahadur 1, Jatinder 2, Karanvir 3; below 38 kg — Vishal 1, Ashish 2, Shakti 3; below 41 kg — Mohit 1, Ashwani 2, Rakesh 3; above 41 kg — Akhil 1,Vanich 2, Paras 3.

Juniors: Below 46 kg — Mohinder 1, Nagraj 2, Prithvi 3; seniors (below 54 kg) — Bhavneet Khanna 1, Bhupinder Singh 2, Sahil Sharma 3; below 58 kg — Vikram Malik 1, Manoj 2, Abhey 3; below 66 kg — Aman Kumar 1, Jabbar Jung 2, Anjesh 3; below 75 kg — Naresh Gupta 1, Arun Prashar 2.

Selection trials: Trials to select the UT women's team in handball, kabaddi and volleyball for the XXV National Women Sports Festival (Group II) to be held at Delhi from February 15 to 18, will be conducted on February 10. The venues for these trials are as follows: Handball — DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8; Volleyball — Sports Complex, Sector 7; Kabaddi — Indoor Badminton Hall, Sector 42. This is according to an information given by Mr J.P.S. Sidhu, Joint Director Sports of the UT Administration.

The trials will be held at 3 p.m. for each discipline.

Cricket tourney: A superb all-round performance by Manoj who scored 61 runs and bagged four wickets for just 10 runs, enabled the Punjab Financial Corporation team to score a fine 120-run win over the Central Bank of India in the VIth Inter-Financial Cricket Tournament organised by the PFCEWA at Gursagar Grounds here today. In another match, the HSIDC beat Canara Bank by nine runs.

ADMINISTRATION

Course for police officers
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — A two-day capsule course for officers of Chandigarh Police on international humanitarian law and human rights began at UT State Guest House, Sector 6, here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Brig Gen Martin Rutsch (retd), an International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) delegate to the Armed and Security Forces of South Asia, focussed on the Red Cross movement and ICRC's role during armed conflicts.

Mr D.K. Arya, Consultant to the ICRC, New Delhi, dwelled on human rights and use of the force and fire arms, while Wg Cdr P. Bakshi (retd) said the laws of war were not only for the defence forces but for all disciplined forces, as according to estimates, for every one soldier killed, over 100 civilians were killed.

The course focussed on pertinent and topical issues. Speakers made extensive use of audio and video teaching aids.

Earlier, Ms Vineeta Rai, Adviser to the UT Administrator, in her inaugural address, focussed on the major issues pertaining to human rights which concerned the police.

She exhorted participants to avail themselves of the opportunity and educate themselves about the latest thoughts and laws on this subject.

The SSP (Headquarters), Mr Ajay Kashyap, welcomed the guests. This is the first course organised for the benefit of the local police with the assistance of the ICRC.

Separate rallies by Punjab, UT employees
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — Members of the Joint Action Committee of Punjab and UT employees today held two separate rallies in support of their demands.

Raising slogans against the Punjab Government and the Chandigarh Administration, the employees converged at the Plaza in the lunch break to voice their protest against what they called delay in the implementation of their genuine demands. Later, they burnt an effigy of the Punjab Government.

Among the main demands of the employees are release of bonus for the last two years, promotional scales after 4,9 and 14 years of service, enhancement in the uniform rates and the CCA, release of DA, regularisation of the daily-wage workers, and scrapping of the privatisation policies.

While condemning the “illegal detention” of Mr SP Singh, Mining Officer of the Industries Department by the Vigilance Cell, allegedly at the instance of Mr Adesh Partap Singh, Punjab Minister of Excise and Taxation, the speakers wanted his early release and action against the guilty.

Resolutions against the merger of the Punjab Land Development and Reclamation Corporation and the Punjab Seeds Corporation with the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation were passed at the rallies. The termination of the services of four employees of the Punjab Arts Council was also condemned.