R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

PUNJAB

BARNALA
ARRESTED: Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, said here on Tuesday that Manmohan Singh alias Mohna, wanted in chain snatching and trespassing cases had been arrested. He said the culprit had confessed his involvement in four cases.Inaugurated: Mr Ashwani Kumar Sharma, general secretary, Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, inaugurated a girls’ hostel of the local Lal Bahadur Shastri Arya Mahila college on Tuesday on the occasion of the annual prize distribution function of the college. Ms Swaraj Mohan, Principal, Banarsi Dass Arya Girls College, Jalandhar, was present on the occasion.

HOSHIARPUR
CASE REGISTERED: The Hariana police has registered a case under Section 342, IPC, and Section 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Surinder Pal Singh, ASI of the Hariana police stations on a charge of confining and torturing Raju, a resident of Hariana. Mr R.P. Mittal, SSP, said here on Tuesday that the SHO and the ASI had illegally confined him in police custody on March 10 on a complaint of Dr Surinder Singh. He said both had been sent to police line.

DOWRY CASE: On a complaint of Mrs Parwinder Kaur Saini of Kakon village, the police has registered a case under Section 498-A, IPC, against her husband, Manjit Singh, father-in-law, Avtar Singh, mother-in-law, Tarsem Kaur, sister-in-law, Inderjit Kaur, Jaswant Singh Nawrang and his wife on a charge of torturing her for not bring sufficient dowry.

PATIALA
EYE OPERATION: A week-long free eye operation camp will be conducted at Sauja village by Dr Sukhdip S. Boparai and his team of doctors from the local Eye Hospital from Thursday. Patients requiring phaco surgery with intraocular lens implant will be provided these free by the National Consumer Welfare Council.

PHAGWARA
BOY KILLED: A four-year-old boy Arun, a resident of Thakarki village, was crushed to death while he was standing outside a petrol station on the GT road here, on Monday. The police has registered a case under Sections 304-A and 279 of the IPC.

ONE BOOKED: The local police booked Karan Kumar, alias Happy, owner of a video parlour, on Monday and seized three obscene films from his possession. He is a resident of Kotrani village situated on the outskirts of Phagwara.

CHANDIGARH

SCIENCE PAPER: The Class X science paper of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), held on March 15, with code number 31/1 to 31/3 was out of syllabus, which would affect the performance of students, said their parents on Tuesday. They pointed out that teachers were unable to solve the question paper and the paper was too lengthy. They demanded that since the paper was out of syllabus, grace marks should be granted to the students.

LIONS CLUB: The following have been elected office-bearers of Lions Club, Chandigarh Host: President — Mr M.P. Agnihotri; Vice Presidents — Mr R.R. Aneja, Mr Sanjay Jain and Mr Rattan Singh; Secretary — Mr S.K. Gupta; Joint Secretary-cum-Director — Mr R.K Singla; and Treasurer — Mr Surinder Singh.

MEETING: The annual meeting of the Obstetric and Gynaecological Society of Northern India will be held in Lecture theatre complex, PGI, on Saturday. A panel discussion on Management of a complicated twin pregnancy and a debate on Oophorectomy recommended over 40 years of age will be the main events.

X-RAY PLANT: The Bharat Vikas Parishad will install an X-ray plant at its diagnostic centre at Holiday Home, Sector 24-B, on Sunday. Prof S.K. Sharma, PGI, will inaugurate it.

KHARAR
EYE OPERATIONS: The Citizens Welfare Club organised a six-day free eye operation camp at the local Civil Hospital, which concluded on Tuesday. Dr K.K. Gupta and other doctors examined 533 patients and 66 were operated upon.

PHONES: Twelve villagers of Chadiala Sudan, in a letter to the Telecommunication Department, demanded on Tuesday that the village should get telephone connection soon. They had deposited the security long back, they added.

AMBEDKAR MANCH: The following have been elected office-bearers of Dr Ambedkar Bhalai Manch: President — Mr Kirpal Singh; and Secretary — Mr Manmohan Singh.

PANCHKULA
TREK: A trek from Kalka to Kasauli for schoolchildren and the youth, to create awareness about maintaining a clean and healthy environment, was organised by the Youth Hostel, Sector 3, on Tuesday. A total of 18 children participated in the trek.

SAS NAGAR
AYURVEDIC CAMP: A free eye check-up camp was organised by Dr Mahendra Singh Basu, an ayurvedic eye specialist from Bareilly, in Phase 6 on Tuesday. He said there was scope to treat myopia, hypermetropia and other eye ailments in ayurveda.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BOOK RELEASED: Mr Andras Dallos, Hungarian Ambassador to India, released a collaborative book, edited by Dr Vinay Kumar Malhotra of GMN College, on Wednesday.

MERCHANT BODY: The following have been elected office-bearers of the General Merchants Association: President — Mr Vishwa Prakash Walia; Vice-Presidents — Mr Satpal Singh Oberoi and Mr Brij Lal Gupta; General Secretary — Mr R.P. Gupta; Joint Secretary — Mr Gian Chand Gulati; Cashier — Mr Ramesh Madaan; Joint Cashier — Mr Rajender Kumar; and Auditor — Mr J.C. Sethi.

KATHA: Shri Hari Katha Prachar Samiti will organise week-long Srimad Bhagvad katha in Ambala City from next Wednesday, from 8 am to 11 am and from 7 pm to 8 pm. A shobha yatra will be taken out on Tuesday.

KAITHAL
2 KILLED: Amit Kumar (32), a local businessman was killed on Monday when his car turned turtle near Dhakal village. He suffered head injuries and died on the spot. He was the son-in-law of the Taxation Adviser, Mr B.K. Goel. His cremation was largely attended. In another incident Jasmir Singh (23) of Model Town was killed in a road accident near Kailram village on Sunday.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

UNA
LOK ADALAT: Mr J.N. Barowalia, District and Sessions Judge, presided over the Lok Adalat held here on Saturday. About 42 cases were placed before the court out of which 17 were solved by reaching a compromise within two parties.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

Kidney defect rectified sans surgery

DR PAWAN GUPTA, a renowned urology surgeon, has performed another medical feat. Dr Gupta, who is practising at Panipat, was able to remove a cotton ball (see photo) from the kidney of Angoori Devi, a 42-year-old woman, without surgery.

As per medical experts, this is the first case of its kind in India and one of the first few cases in the world. Dr Gupta used the method of ureterorenoscopy for removing the cotton ball. This method does not involve making of any hole or cutting and part of the body.

Dr Gupta said by this technique he passed a telescope through the urinary passage of the woman and was able to remove the cotton ball. He maintained that this technique, adopted by him for the first time in India, was much safer than the cutaneous technique, hitherto used to remove the cotton ball.

Angoori Devi who belongs to Tigeri village of Kurukshetra district was referred to Dr Pawan Gupta’s clinic. She was an old diabetic patient. She was experiencing constant pain in the right lower flank of the kidney because of ureteric stones. Her x-ray showed two stones in the right lower ureteric (pipe of the kidney) with delayed function in the right kidney because of these stones. Although, he had treated more than 4,000 patients through intra and extracorporeal lithotripsy, yet he was not sure about the malfunctioning of the left kidney till he saw the cotton ball in it while removing ureteric stones. The cotton ball was found to be damaging her kidney by blocking the passage of urine.

Dr Gupta mustered courage and removed the ball with the help of telescopes only and no surgery was carried out. He explained that the cotton ball was in fact a fungal ball and was a very dangerous development, which had a very high death rate. Few cases of a fungal ball in the kidney have so far been reported in the medical world.

Dr Gupta is one of the new urologists in this part of the world who has treated a fungal ball and probably the first one in the world who has done it with the help of the uretheroscope.

Ex-cop takes on spiritual mantle

Mr Vijay Dayal is perhaps the only person who has traversed a long journey to find himself in the role of a spiritual leader after years of policing as a top police officer.

Mr Dayal, a former Director-General of Police, is now based in Panchkula and has been serving people as the head of Manvata Mandir, a spiritual and educational organisation, having more than 300 of its branches spread all over the world.

Talking about the role being performed by him these days and what acted as a driving force for him, Mr Vijay Dayal, said the objective of his organisation was to rekindle the spirit of truthfulness in human beings through meditation and education without considering their caste or creed.

He said the attraction to the realm of spirituality was spontaneous and he experienced its pull in 1974 while serving with Interpol in Paris. He used to teach yoga there during off-duty hours. “It was as natural as the blossoming of a flower in spring. I had felt that we human beings, in pursuit of worldly attractions, were going far away from our inner self, and I thought the only way out was to return to ourselves through meditation and by serving others in whatever way I count,” he added asserting that truth could be found lying somewhere in every human being and the only need was to search for it.

Cancer centre in HP

The distinction of being the first-ever cancer centre to be attached to any medical college in the country goes to Shimla. The Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) here becomes the 15th such centre which is autonomous or linked to central institutes. Fitted with the latest equipment worth Rs 1.50 crore, it was given the green signal only after a central government team had visited and inspected the infra-structural facilities last December.

The RCC caters to the region and mostly hill areas, where cancer is gradually spreading. Surprisingly there has been a rise in cancer of the uterine cervix among women in the remote areas. This type forms one-third of all cancers and 82 per cent of all gynaecological cancers.

According to Dr Harbans Lal Kapoor, Head of the Department of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, breast cancer is also showing a rising trend among women in cities, but risk factors for women in Western countries are not relevant in the Indian context.

This has also been confirmed by Dr Satish Jain, Chief of Surgery and Oncology-cum-Medical Director, Mohan Dai Cancer Treatment & Research Foundation, Ludhiana, who was here in connection with the All-India Surgeons’ Conference held recently. Dr Jain has seen a steady rise in breast cancer amongst women, particularly in the cities. Out of 4,000 patients he had treated, 1500 has to get the breast removed through surgery. He says though there is no scientific proof on why breast cancer is common amongst city-bred women but he feels it could be due to change in the lifestyle, lack of exercise, changing food habits and of course, general awareness because of exposure and good literacy rate.

Head and neck cancer is highly prevalent as it is related to tobacco and alcohol use common among men because of the cold climate.Dr Kapoor after having analysed more than 10,000 cancer cases and decided to set up facilities in Shimla to fight this dreaded disease.

The RCC offers the maximum number of facilities keeping in view the difficult geographic terrain and long treatment patients have to undergo. This saves them money. Compliance is ensured and also adequate follow-up. Above all, the family economy is not destroyed.

Dr Harbans Lal Kapoor is focusing now on early diagnosis and early treatment. Cancer can be prevented when detected and diagnosed in the early stages. Free counselling and awareness programmes for all districts in the state has been initiated. He is confident of taking this dreaded disease head on.

Dr Kapoor takes time off to guide and serve the Association of Radiation Oncologists of India (North Zone) of which he is president.

Contributed by K. G. Dutt, Varinder Singh and Rama Sharma.