HEALTH

Monitoring patients in ICU discussed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — Early detection of any problem in the vital functioning of the body, immediate intervention, close monitoring and the prevention of any complications are of foremost importance in the management of a critically ill child. This was the focus today of the pre-conference CME of the second national conference on paediatric intensive care being organised by the Advanced Paediatric Centre (AMC), PGI, on the AMC premises. The subject of the pre-conference CME was the basic intensive care workshop.

A total of 100 delegates participated in the workshop today. According to Dr Sunit Singhi, Department of Paediatrics, PGI and the Organising secretary, "Critical illness is generally equated with high technology and equipment. However, the recognition of critical illness and provision of early care depends entirely on the use of eyes, ears and hands. The basic intensive care workshop was especially designed for those getting initiated into the speciality and includes hands-on training. Understandably, therefore, the number had to be limited".

A total of four work stations to teach fundamentals of management of critically ill children in intensive care units were set up today for the participating delegates. The various issues discussed included how to ventilate a child who cannot breathe on his own; the essentials of monitoring of a sick child and checking his level of consciousness, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.; arrhythmia and defibrillation in which equipment to resucitate children were also demonstrated; and the management of vascular lines and how to secure the same in a sick child's body.

The expert faculty in these work stations included Dr P. Khilnani, Dr Rajeev Uttam, Dr Suchitra Ranjit, Dr S. Ramesh, Dr N. Jankiraman, Dr S. Singh, Dr S. Krishnan and Dr Anil Sachdeva.

Dr Pratibha Singhi from the PGI said that the basic emphasis of today's pre-conference CME was the immediate management, recognition and stabilisation of a critically ill child.

Earlier in the day, Dr Suchitra Ranjit from Chennai read a paper on the monitoring of a patient in the intensive care unit, and said that the goal of any paediatric critical care is to monitor and support and eventually restore vital system function in children.

Dr Rajiv Uttam from New Delhi discussed the issue of comatose children, which, he said, was to be regarded as a medical emergency. He then talked about the management strategies as involving emergency measures, diagnostic work-up and definite treatment.

Dr N. Jankiraman from Chicago, USA, delivered a lecture on shock in children, which, he said, was a clinical syndrome of acute disruption of both micro and macro circulatory function due to insufficiency in tissue perfusion, thereby leading to decreased metabolism.

The other subjects discussed included respiratory failure and initiation of mechanical ventilation and triage of the critically ill.

The three-day CME and the conference would be inaugurated tomorrow morning which would include more than 300 delegates from various parts of the country, including the USA, Switzerland, Italy and France

AIDS awareness road show
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — The AIDS Control Centre, in collaboration with a home appliance company, will organise a road show on February 27 to create awareness on AIDS. The highlight of the event will be various addresses to the crowd by patients having this disease.

The road show is aimed at promoting the social cause and making people aware of the same. The campaign will be flagged off from the PGI and will pass through various points in the city, before culminating at Rose Garden.

On its way, the campaign will hold AIDS awareness addresses, audio skits and distribution of brochures and pamphlets. Medical experts involved in AIDS research will also address the crowds.

SPORT

Eagerly awaited sport facility
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — Sport activities in Panchkula are restircted to schools mostly as no good-standard sport facility exists.

The Haryana Urban Development Authority has constructed some community centres in various sectors in the town where only limited sport can be played. These facilities are also not regularly available, as at the time of social functions at these centres, players have to forego the practice.

Residents of Panchkula had hoped for an improvement in sport facilities when it was made a district. In anticipation of that, sport enthusiasts had even hurriedly made new associations. Many of the office-bearers of these associations had been part of various Chandigarh-based sport bodies.

Players have to travel more than 10 km to Chandigarh for their practice. Now, there is a reason to cheer with a sport complex being planned in Sector 3. Though the foundation stone of this 50-acre huge complex was laid in 1998, work on it had stopped on many occasions.

HUDA had been given the job of making the facility functional in a phased manner. The first phase comprises an athletics track, cricket ground, badminton hall, besides lawn tennis, basketball and volleyball courts.

According to sources in HUDA, this Rs 8-crore project will see almost Rs 6 crore to be spent in the first phase. Out of this, Rs 4 crore will be spent on creating infrastructure and the remaining Rs 2 crore on other facilities. Technical guidance and expertise will be provided by engineers of The NS National Institute of Sports of the Sports Authority of India at Patiala.

The athletics track will have 10 lanes according to international specifications with seating arrangement for nearly 15,000 persons. The 28-foot-high badminton hall will have two wooden courts, besides a seating capacity of nearly 2,000 persons.

There will be two lawn tennis courts, one clay and the other hard, besides a basketball court and two volleyball courts. The cricket ground will be for practice purposes and low-key matches mainly with not much seating arrangement.

The sources said the cricket ground and basketball courts would be completed by September, while the first phase would be ready by March 2001. At present, the levelling of the surface, water supply and roads are the priorities with the construction crew. Fencing is also being done to cordon off the complex.

Though a swimming pool and other facilities are also part of the next phases, authorities want to stick to the schedule for finishing the first phase by next year, for now.

Cricket prodigy shaping up well
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — A passion for cricket along with eight hours of rigorous practice daily at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, is the story of young Simrandeep Singh Brar. His resolve to become a good cricketer has been reinforced after watching the heroic performance of Yuveraj Singh at the recently concluded World Youth Cup. Simrandeep, a student of Yadavindra Public School in SAS Nagar, has recently taken the Class IX examinations.

An allrounder who bowls at medium pace, Simrandeep was the captain of the Punjab schools cricket team at the Calcutta National School Games from December 26 to 30 past year. There, in the match against Maharashtra, he played superbly.

Also, in under-14 section of the previous year's National School Games at Ambikapur in Madhya Pradesh, Simrandeep had represented Punjab.

He began playing at the age of 11 under the watchful eyes of a former Ranji player, Yograj Singh, besides Harish Kumar who is still his trainer. Simrandeep said, ''My father wanted me to take up athletics as I could cover 100 metres in 11.8 seconds. However, in India, cricketers get more recognition."

His father, Mr Nachhatar Singh Brar, a Law Officer in the Sector 17 Punjab Agricultural Development Bank used to be a good athlete himself. Simrandeep's 12-year-old younger brother, Shivdeep, is shaping as a good lawn tennis player.

Simrandeep who will be 15-year-old in July next, is brilliant in studies as well. He scored 80 per cent marks in Class VIII examinations and aspires to become an engineer. At present, his eyes are set on representing the country in his age group. He did not want to miss any opportunity to represent India, said his father.

Simrandeep had covered once 400 meters in 59 seconds. The chief national athletics coach, J.S. Sainiat of the NIS at Patiala, had advised Simrandeep's father to let him take up athletics as he could become a world class athlete.

Five-foot-nine-inch tall, Simrandeep also enjoys the support of his school Principal, Mr H.S. Dhillon, who has allowed him to utilise the evening schedule for practice.

Simrandeep said his mentor Yograj Singh had prescribed Rs 500 worth daily diet for him to cope with the tiring schedule. Yograj seriously concentrates on making him improve his game. His father said Yograj wanted Simrandeep to do well like his own son, Yuveraj Singh.

City carrom team chosen
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — The Chandigarh Carrom Association has selected a five-member team, including two women, to represent the city at the XXIX Senior National and Inter-State Carrom Championship to be held at Ongole (AP) from February 29 to March 5, according to Mr R.S. Yadav, Press Secretary of the association. The six-day meet will be organised by the Prakasham District Carrom Association under the aegis of the Andhra Pradesh Carrom Association and the All-India Carrom Federation.

The team is as follows: K.S. Patwal (Survey of India, Chandigarh), Sanjay Negi (DAV College, Sector 10), Ravinder Sharma (Haryana Civil Secretariat), Anjali Negi (Government College for Women, Sector 11), and Susheela Prasad (Bureau of Indian Standards, Chandigarh).

Mr B.S. Negi and Mr Suraj Kohli will accompany the team as officials.

Kabaddi runners-up

The Haryana Power Sports Group emerged runners-up at the recently concluded All-India Inter-Electricity-Boards Kabaddi Tournament at Salem Metturdam (TN) where 12 teams drawn from various state electricity boards took part. The final match was played between the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board team. The HVPN went down fighting to the TNEB, 18-20. Anil Kumar of the HVPN was adjudged the best player of the tournament.

Earlier, in the semi-finals, the HVPN beat the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, 16-9. In the other semi-final match, TNEB beat the Himachal State Electricity Board, 28-14.

Annual meet

The two-day annual sport meet of MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, will begin tomorrow at 10 am on the college premises. The closing function will take place on Saturday at 3 pm.

Sport day

Tender Heart School, Sector 33, will organise its annual junior sport day and prize distribution function tomorrow at 9.30 am, according to Ms Prem Suri, Principal of the school.

ADMINISTRATION

Admn begins land acquisition work
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — The Chandigarh Administration has started proceedings for acquisition of land in various villages for the development of Phase III sectors.

In a notification issued recently under Sections 6 and 7 of the Land Acquisition Act, the Administration has made its intentions clear of acquiring nearly 225 acres in various villages of the Union Territory.

For example, it proposes to acquire 114.43 acres in Kajheri village; 24.1 acres in Badheri village in one stretch and another 45.68 acres in the second stretch besides 42.38 acres in Palsora village.

The Administration has also issued similar notification for a couple of other villages also.

Besides these 225 acres of land, it has already initiated proceedings for acquisition of more than 180 acres of land for the proposed botanical garden.

The land to be acquired for the development of Phase III sectors would witness heavy housing activity as the Administration proposes to allot land to cooperative housing societies and also construct 16,000 dwelling units for rehabilitating slum dwellers as identified as per the December ,1996, electoral rolls.

UT notifies policy on power supply
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — The Chandigarh Administration has notified its policy for supply of power to Cooperative House Building Societies facilitating release of connections to the societies at a single point or on an individual basis to members concerned to meet its requirement of providing trunk periphery services by the Engineering Department.

The Administration has by a separate notification also notified the power tariff rates in respect of electricity connections to the Cooperative House Building Societies or their members.

These notifications would be applicable on more than 8,000 members of various cooperative housing societies who are in the verge of moving into their own dwelling units soon.

Since the Cooperative House Building Societies have been allotted land on a chunk basis, the Administration has decided to provide high tension i.e. 11 KV system on the trunk periphery service, including upto the indoor switching area or overhead system in such a periphery area. Take off from this overhead system or the indoor switching station to the indoor sub- station or pole mounted substation of the society, as the case may be, and laying of local distribution within the Housing Society Complex would be done by the society concerned.

The Cooperative House Building Societies would have the option to get the bulk supply connection on high tension at a single point and make arrangements for giving connections to its members at its own end or the society can opt for individual connections to its members.

In the first option, the responsibility for erection and subsequent maintenance of the substation and local distribution system inside the premises of the society shall be entirely of the society. However, the erection work by the society would be carried out after getting the approval of their drawings, layout, specifications of equipment from the department. In this case the supervision charges @ of 5 per cent of the total estimated cost shall be recovered by the department from the society concerned.

In case of the second option where societies want members to get their individual connections, the society would be still responsible for erecting their own sub-station and laying of their local distribution system. In such cases, the responsibility for maintenance of system would be of the department and thus besides 5 per cent supervision charges, one time charge of 16 per cent of the estimated cost would have to be paid by the society concerned. In such a situation the high tension system and the local distribution system laid by the society shall become the property of the department and in addition, the society would have to give guarantee against damages to the equipment installed by it for a period of five years.

In either case, the society concerned will have to submit a resolution of the members clearly stating their option to the department. Further, the connections would be released only after requisite charges as worked out under the relevant option have been deposited with the department.

In case of individual connections, each member would have to enter into a separate agreement with the department and deposit requisite security charges as applicable under the commercial instruments. In such cases, the normal domestic supply tariff would be applicable.

In case of bulk supply, another notification said, a single point connection shall be given to the society concerned and billing would be done at high tension metering system.

The entire responsibility of installation, operation and maintenance of transformer, low tension distribution network, including individual metering, billing and collection of revenue shall be of the society concerned. Further, the society would be responsible for payment of bills so raised by the Electricity Department from time to time and the common services like lifts, drinking water, sewerage pumps, street lights and others would also be fed from the same connection.

The department would provide AC 50 cycles, a three-phase 11000 volts supply.

In case of bulk supply, the tariff notified now is first 10 per cent of the total monthly consumption at the rate of 146 paise per unit; next 70 per cent of total monthly consumption at 215 paise per unit and last 20 per cent of the total consumption at 262 paise per unit.

Rebate of 15 per cent shall be allowed on ‘sale of power’. The electricity duty shall, however, be payable on the total energy consumed at the usual rates applicable for domestic supply. The monthly minimum charges would be recoverable @ Rs 100 per KVA of the contract demand.

There is a provision for temporary connections in case either the society or the Department is not able to complete the work till the time members of the Society start occupying their dwelling units.

In this case the erection of sub-station, pole-mounted or indoor along with the entire high tension and low tension distribution system, including transformers, HT switchgears after the Electricity Department’s metering cubical shall be installed by the society concerned at its cost and test report of the entire installation would be submitted to the department from a licensed wiring contractor. For HT installation, the same shall be got approved from the Electrical Inspector of Chandigarh. The rating of transformers, HT Switchgear and technical specification, design of HT and LT system shall be as per the CED norms and got approved from the CED.

ESIC’s anniversary
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 24 — The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is safeguarding the interests of 5,16,300 workers in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Stating this on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the ESIC here today, the Regional Director, Mr B. C. Bhardwaj, said under the scheme, which was functioning from 56 centres, cash benefits were distributed among the workers through 29 local offices situated at different industrial centres. The medical benefit was provided to the workers through 87 dispensaries and eight ESI hospitals.

He informed that since April, 1999, a revolving fund had been created at the regional office for making payments on account of medical reimbursement and advances for getting the speciality/super-speciality treatment to the insured persons. An amount of Rs 34.92 lakh had been deposited in different medical institutes where 43 workers and their dependents had undergone operations.

During the current financial year, 94 workers had lost their lives during employment and their dependents were getting pensions, Mr Bhardwaj added.

Meanwhile, the staff of the regional office, including the Regional Director, assembled here and took a pledge to put more efforts to serve the insured persons with sincerity.