HEALTH

Stress on need to check vector-borne diseases
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 26 — There is need to implement an integrated strategy for the control of vector-borne diseases. This was highlighted by speakers during one of the sessions on the concluding day of the 3rd annual conference on “Public Health Challenges in the New Millennium’’, organised by the North Chapter of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine at PGI.

It was pointed out that vector-borne diseases such as Japanese encephalitis, dengue and malaria pose a formidable challenge. Epidemics of these diseases have now started occurring in the northern states, including Haryana and Punjab.

Dr A.K Harit, Chief Medical Officer from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, stressed the need to train the Medical officers of these states on the epidemilogy of these diseases.

Prof Sunder Lal, Head of the Department of Social and Preventive medicine, Pt BDS, PGIMS, Rohtak, also spoke on integrated vector-control strategies to combat these diseases. He emphasised that besides using insecticides, health education and increased awareness in the communities is an important tool for prevention of vector breeding. He said that nagar palikas and village panchayats should be entrusted with the responsibility to check the breeding spaces of mosquitoes.

In another session, Dr N.C. Tiwana, Director of Science and Technology, Punjab highlighted the magnitude and sources of air pollution in several cities of Punjab such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Yamunanagar and Faridabad in Haryana. He gave statistics to indicate that air pollution is causing several hundred premature deaths every year in Ludhiana. He pointed out that automobiles and industry are the major source of air pollution in these cities. Dr Tiwana said that after the introduction of unleaded petrol, the level of lead in the air had come down. However, the problem of benzene, a carcinogen is still persisting.

Dr D. Behera, Additional Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, spoke about the ill-effects of indoor air pollution caused by domestic fuel in the kitchen. He said that the Indian woman spends considerable part of her day in the kitchen, where she is exposed to air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, suspended particulate matter due to high levels of these substances in the kitchen, more so wherebiomas is used as fuel. However, due to poor quality of stoves, even kitchens, where LPG is used, levels of these substances are found to be high. Lack of proper ventilation in the kitchen is the main reason why chronic obstructive airway diseases are more common in women.

Dr Basudev Prasad, Head of the Environment monitoring department, CSIO spoke on air quality monitoring and pointed out that portable instruments available can be taken anywhere to monitor air quality. He gave an account of various instruments such as Anderson sampler — which can find out the size of particles causing physical problem in lungs; Naphelometer, which is a right angle scatter particle for monitoring air pollution. He emphasised that legislation awareness programmes, use of catalytic converters, city planning and waste management can help check air pollution.

The teams from community medicine, PGI and DMC, Ludhiana, won the quiz competition organised during the conference. Besides this, 28 scientific papers were read in the conference by public health scientists from the region.

In his valedictory address, Dr Joginder Singh stressed the need to implement recommendations made by various speakers and assured that he would try and implement them in Chandigarh.

Dr Rajesh Kumar, Professor and Head of Community Medicine, PGI was elected as the President of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, North Zone Chapter. In his presidential address, he said that the association will work in collaboration with the health services officials for taking up challenges posed by emerging public health problems.

The department has brought out a souvenir to commemorate its silver jubilee, which was released by the PGI Director, Dr S.K Sharma yesterday.. The booklet describes 25 years of community service, teaching and research progress of the department. Earlier, Dr V.K Bahl, Assistant Commissioner, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi outlined the research priorities in reproductive and child health. He said that ministry has invited research proposals in these subjects.

‘Young Indians prone to coronary diseases’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 26 — Latest techniques in the treatment of coronary diseases were discussed at a symposium on Cardiology 2000 held here today.

Speaking on Coronary artery diseases in young Indians — the challenge of the millennium, Dr H.S. Rissam, Senior Consultant Cardiologist from Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, expressed concern at the high incidence of coronary diseases among the younger generation. He said 12 million people died of coronary diseases in the world every year and 80 per cent of the deaths occurred in the first four hours of the heart attack, before the patient could make it to heart institutes.

Giving statistics, he said young Indians were four times more prone to coronary diseases than their US counterparts. While in the under-40 age group, the incidence in the USA was 2 to 5 per cent, the same was 12 to 16 per cent in India, he added.

Due to genetic factors, the Indians living in the USA were prone to coronary diseases more than 10 years earlier than nationals of other developing Asian countries. While the lifestyle was responsible for higher incidence of the diseases among the affluent sections of society, infection was the main reason for the disease among the poor sections.

In his presentation, Dr Suman Bhandari, also from Escorts, expressed concern that while the mortality rate was coming down in developed countries, including the USA, in the developing nations, there had been a 15 to 20 per cent increase in recent years.

SPORT

Sanam, Yuvraj in u-14 final
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, March 26 — Sanam Krishan and Yuvraj Chaudhary made it to the final of the under-14 boys' section on the penultimate day today of the Chandigarh State Lawn Tennis Championship being played here at the CLTA courts in Sector 10. Tushar Liberhan, a student of St John's High School, Sector 26, who recently won the Asia Cup at Islamabad in the under-14 section, easily reached the finals of the under-16 section and will meet Gurneet Singh in tomorrow's final.

In the girls' section, siblings Neha Singh and Simmer, students of Sacred Heart School, Sector 26, and daughters of a senior tennis coach at the Lake Club centre, Baldev Singh, will meet in the final of the under-14 section. Neha had no difficulty in beating Amanpreet Kaur in straight sets, but, her sister Simmer was involved in a cliff-hanger against Bahar Paul who extended her to three sets before losing in a tie-breaker.

In the men's section, the final will be played between Saurabh Sharma and Gurwinder Singh. Gurwinder beat Robin in an upset when Robin conceded the second set after losing his temper. Robin also threw his racket twice after lost the games on the centre court.

Mr Rajan Kashyap, Chairman of the CLTA, said the newly-developed synthetic courts were inaugurated on March 17 by four players of the association's Rural Area Scheme. These players were Paras Thakur, Gursher Singh, Sandeep Singh and Preetam. All of them signed the visitors' book at the CLTA office.

Results: Girls (under-14 semi-finals) — Neha Singh b Amanpreet Kaur, 6-1, 6-0; Simmer b Bahar Paul, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4); girls' (under-18 quarterfinals) — Mallika b Amanpreet Kaur, 6-1, 6-0; Neha Singh b Khushleen Kaur, 6-1, 6-0; Simmer b Tanya, 6-2, 6-4; Sanya b Bahar, 6-4, 6-0; semi-finals — Mallika b Sanya, 6-0, 6-0.

Boys (under-14 quarterfinals) — Yuvraj Chaudhary b Dilpreet Singh, 6-2, 6-1; Gurdit Singh b Rohan Bhandari, 6-3, 6-2; Sanam K. Singh b Jatin, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5; Harneet Singh b Simran J. Cheema, 6-2, 6-4; semi-finals Yuvraj Chaudhary b Gurdit Singh, 6-0, 7-5; Sanam Krishan b Harneet, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

Boys (under-16 semi-finals) — Tushar Liberhan b Ardaman Sidhu, 6-2, 6-0; Gurneet Singh b Jatin, 6-1, 6-0.

Men (quarterfinals) — Saurabh Sharma b Akash Sharma, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; Vikas Sharma b Gursewak Singh; Robin Singh b Sikandar Jaitley, 4-3 (conceded); Gurwinder Singh b Birbal Wadehra, 6-3, 6-4; semi-finals — Gurwinder Singh b Robin Singh, 7-6, 5-4 (conceded); Saurabh Sharma b Vikas Sharma.

Cricket tourney: A superb half century by Gurinder Saini (60 runs off 40 deliveries) helped Evergreen XI Dera Bassi beat Royal Cricket Club by two wickets today in the final of the first MM Lal Jain Tournament for the Kelvinator Cup being played here at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 19.

Royal CC won the toss and decided to bat first. It scored 136 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs. Ravi Pal and Ravi Kumar scored unbeaten 28 and 24 runs, respectively.

Evergreen XI gave a good reply with the help of Gurinder's hurricane 60 runs which included two sixes and seven hits to the fence. Sumit scored 31 runs and the team achieved the target with two wickets in hand. The final will be played on April 2.

Brief scores — Royal CC — 136 for 9 in 20 overs (Ravi Pal 28 n.o., Ravi Kumar 24, Vijay Rattan 2 for 25, Rajesh Kumar 2 for 30); Evergreen XI — 137 for eight (Gurinder Saini 60, Sumit 31, Vijay Rattan 16, Anil Chaudhary 2 for 25, Raghu 2 for 24).

Badminton meet: The IMA Panchkula team won the third Haryana Indian Medical Association Badminton Tournament for the thrid time in a row. The IMA Bhiwani team was the runners-up in the two-day tournament which concluded yesterday at the Sector 7 community centre in Panchkula.

In the individual events, Dr D.P. Bhardwaj of Panchkula was declared the winner, while Dr A. Neogi was the runners-up. In the doubles matches, Dr P. Bhardwaj and Dr R. Dosanjh, also of Panchkula, won the title, while Dr Jindal and Dr A. Neogi were the runners-up.

The tournament was inaugurated on March 24 by Dr D.S. Verma where Dr Vinay Kapoor was the chief guest and Dr Anil Jain the guest of honour. As many as 150 doctors watched the finals.

MGCC XI win: Mohali Gymkhana Cricket Club and ICC Club entered the final of the B.S. Duggal Memorial Cricket Tournament being played here.

In the first semi-final played between MGCC and High Court XI, batting first, the former made 168 runs for eight wickets in 25 overs, while High Court XI could make only 76 runs for the loss of eight wickets. MGCC XI won by 92 runs. In the second semi-final, ICC Club beat Godrej CC by 39 runs. ICC made 166 runs for the loss of eight wickets while Godrej CC were bundled out for 127 runs.

Brief scores (first match): Mohali CC — 168 runs for eight wickets (Kailash Nath 47, Kamal Walia 32, Vikram 31, Gundeep Rana 6 for 23); High Court XI — 76 for eight (Gundeep Rana 33, Vikram 2 for five)

Second match: ICC — 166 for eight (Dharamveer 50, Rashpal 29, Jatinder 20, Vijay Rattan 2 for 16, Amit Bhardwaj 2 for 24, Umesh Khaira 2 for 25); Godrej CC — 27 runs all out (Harminder Bawa 40, Gurinder Saini 15, Jatinder 3 for 18, Naresh 2 for 34, Rishpal 2 for 22).

Kirandeep, Inderjit cycle to victory
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, March 26 — Kirandeep Kaur of Chandigarh in the women's cross-country massed-start race and Inderjit Singh of Railways in the similar race for men, won on the final day of the first Hero National Mountain Bike Championships which concluded here today in the forest area of Panjab University. The enthusiasm in the participants was evident as many of them had a close finish.

In the men's section, Inderjit Singh (chest number 53) took the lead in the last lap. Before this, he was being closely chased by Haryana's Mohan Singh (chest number 44) whose bike-seat fell before the start of the last lap. Inderjit was presented a bike for his brave chase. After finishing the race, he lied flat on the road, exhausted.

Kirandeep Kaur, a Class IX student of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 37, who has also done well in swimming meets, finished 17.5 km-race in 42 minutes and 14.64 seconds.

Earlier, Mr M.P. Singh, UT Home Secretary, flagged off the men's cross-country massed-start race. He also urged the Chandigarh Amateur Cycling Association, organisers of this meet, to conduct such races for the general public on weekends so that mass participation could be possible to popularise these.

Later, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Union Sports Minister, who is also the President of the Cycling Federation of India, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes. He also urged the association to promote the sport in the country by getting involved in the Youth Adventure Programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Mr Kulbir Singh, IAS and State Transport Commissioner of Punjab was also present on the occasion. The CACA honoured him for promoting the activities of the association.

Results: Cross-country massed-start race (17.5 km for women) — Kirandeep Kaur (Chandigarh) 1, time 42 min 14.64 sec; Chetna (Chandigarh) 2; Shveta (Chandigarh) 3.

Men — Inderjit Singh (Railways) 1, time 59 min 43.29 sec; Mohan Singh (Haryana) 2; Ranjit Singh (DoT) 3; junior girls — Manpreet Kaur (Chandigarh) 1, time 29 min 18.33 sec; Shivika Arora (Chandigarh) 2; Rajni (Punjab) 3; open massed-start race — Inderjit Singh (Railways), time 10 min 39.77 sec.

50 entries for Ladies Open Amateur Golf
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 26 — The eighth Chandigarh Open Amateur Ladies Golf Championship will be held here from March 28 to 31.

The first day of the championship will be a mixed doubles lucky partners competition followed by a 54-hole strokeplay competition.

Fifty entries have been received for the Spice Telecom sponsored tournament. This includes 14 outstation players. Out of 50 participants 15 are junior golfers which augurs well for the future of Indian golf.

Irina Brar, India’s No 1 Lady Golfer, who has just finished her class 10 board exams will be leading the charge for the many prizes at stake. Irina is the only girl who will be representing India in Juniors as well as Ladies in International Tournaments in May. Shruti Khanna from Delhi, a member of the Indian ladies team and local junior Guneet Raikhy, a member of the Indian junior team, will also be seen in action. The defending champion and India’s No 2, Parnita Garewal, who takes her exams in April, and India No 3 Vandana Agarwal will also be vying for top honours.

The winner of the championship will be presented a specially designed diamond golf pendant by Sant Ram Mangat Ram Jewellers.

Competitions will be held in the following sections: Grewal Salver (0-12 handicap); Spice Challenge Cup; Bawa Gill Trophy (13-24 handicap); Ladies Section Trophy (25-36 handicap); Chandigarh Ladies Challenge (0-12 handicap); Rani Jagdish Kaur Cup (13-24 handicap) Meters and Instruments Trophy (25-36 handicap); Lady Governor’s Cup for senior golfers (above 50 years); Junior golfers below 21 years; and Sub-junior golfers below 15 years.

ADMINISTRATION

A.S. Mohali refutes Billa’s charges
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, March 26 — Continuing with his tirade a former President of the local Municipal Council, Mr H.S.Billa, has charged that the affairs of the civic body, after the administrator took over in January this year, were being run by the former senior Vice-President of the council owning allegiance to the ruling party in Punjab.

The senior Vice-President of the council, Mr Amrik Singh Mohali, refuted the charges levelled by Mr Billa against him. He said that he had hardly visited the council office after the term of the elected body expired in January.

Mr Billa also alleged that after the term of the elected civic body expired in January this year all was not well with the council. He said the council had given a loan of Rs 30 lakh to the Rahon municipal body, whereas during his term as President he had refused to lend the council’s money to the Punjab Government on two separate occasions.

Dishonouring of cheques issued to private contractors for undertaking development works was also alleged by the former President, who reiterated his demand to hold an enquiry as to how a senior clerk in the council, who had been absent from duty for over four years, was reinstated inspite of an enquiry pending against the latter.

The administrator of the council, Mr O.P. Popli, while refuting the allegations said the senior clerk, Mr Amrit Lal, had been reinstated after following the proper procedure and there was no irregularity in it. He said the enquiry against the clerk was going on.