PANCHKULA, May 18 — Just left of the Panchkula-Zirakpur highway in Sector 3 here, the bumpy road of cobbled stones leads to the Institute of Indian System of Medicine and Research.

Everyday almost 65 patients suffering from arthritis, spondilytis, depression, and common cold, visit the institute for alternative methods of medicine, including homoeopathy, acupressure, yoga and ayurvedic facilities. All free of cost.

According to Dr. Suresh Sharma, “At least 35 patients come daily to the homoeopathy department alone for the cure of chronic as well as acute diseases. We cure the disease from the root, but it’s effective only when accurate symptoms are narrated”.

A retired Army officer and social worker, Col. A.K Mittal, has been visiting this institute for four years. “It is an excellent institute with very good doctors. But it needs patrons. A telephone should be installed so that the patients can inquire about the doctor’s availability,” he suggested.

“The naturopathy branch was to be started soon but seems to have been delayed. The room is ready, but probably there is a shortage of funds,” asserted Colonel Mittal.

Patients come for yoga also. “Yoga is the traditional path to physical, mental, moral and spiritual good health which helps to cope up with stress,” explains Mrs Kiran Gupta, yoga coach. “One must learn yoga under supervision and guidance until the technique is mastered. It is also important to do the exercises regularly to get benefit. Patients suffering from depression, asthma, spondilytis, disc problems etc come here to get relief”, says Mrs Gupta.

The Ayurvedic Medical Officer, Dr Shakuntala Singh, has been in this field for 17 years. “About 20 to 25 patients come here daily. The government has grown amla, ashoka, mulathi, chitrak and baheda to get the most out of these herbs. We use the plants, as these have no chemicals or any side effects”, she says.

Acupressure is a safe method of pressure application for relief from pain and other ailments. Dr. Rakesh Srivastav says, “In the past nine years, the number of patients has increased. But, I cannot see more than 15 patients as with each one I spend at least 20 minutes. Besides the time factor, a lot of energy is also utilised because acupressure is the art of treating the disease by applying pressure on a specified point”, explains Dr Srivastav.

Mr Sanjeev Dhankar’s mother has been suffering from arthritis for the past 18 years. “Nothing has helped her as we have tried everything. This is the best and convenient,” he said. Mrs Uma Sehgal visits the centre to get her points pressed every alternate day.

CHANDIGARH, May 18 — Rishab and Abhishekh Kalra moved to the next round of the junior boys’ singles event in the St Stephen’s carrom ranking tournament, which began at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, here today.

Another seed, Tejinder Harry beat Gurinder Singh and Ramanpreet Pahwa also surged ahead. The meet was organised by Mr Jasbir Singh, an international cricket umpire.

Results: men’s singles — Gurinder Singh b Manoj Kumar Bhat 25-9, 25-0; Ankur Vashisht b Sunil Sharma 20-7, 10-12, 18-6; Deepak b Manoj Gulati 25-14, 25-13; Jagdish Dhir b N.K. Arora 25-11, 24-4; Paramdeep Singh b Vir S. Mandal 25-4, 25-8; Taranpreet b Ashok Bangar 14-25, 25-3, 25-12; Tejinder Harry b Gurinder Singh 25-0, 25-1; K.S. Patwal b Ankul Vashisht 25-0, 25-1.

Junior boys’ singles — Rishab b Sanchit 25-1, 25-5; Abhishekh Kalra b Manbir 25-11, 25-2; Paramdeep b Ankush 25-0, 25-0; Ankit Kalra b Gurpreet Singh 25-10, 18-9.

Sub-junior boys’ singles — Varun Sood b Viney 25-0; Yadpreet Singh b Shuhul Razdan 25-0; Graham Antinus b Gurinder 25-4; Sumit Chakarvorty b Gagandeep 25-0; Gaurav Mudgil b Hitesh Jungal 25-0; Anjul Hans b Vishal 25-0; A.S. Bedi b Vaneet 25-0; Ravinder Kumar b Hargun 25-6, Baldev Negi b Karan Kaushal 25-0; Ankit Kalsi b Varun Sood 25-6; Sahil Grover b Rahul Rai 25-0; Sidharth b Rahul Peter 25-8; Pushpinder b Jaspreet Singh 25-7; Jagjit Saini b Shashank 22-17; Manik Kaushal b Anjul Malhotra 25-0. Rahul Nanda b Yadpreet 25-0; Taranpreet b Graham Antinus 25-1; Abhinandan b Majik Jain 25-0; Dhanesh Arora b Ashish Dhand 25-0; Anirudh S. Rana b Ankit Nasa 10-8; Parambir Singh b Balbir Ali Khan 25-0; Dheeraj Sharma b Moneet 25-0; Sumit Aithani b Sunil K. Yadav 25-0; Rishab Khurana b Gaurav Bhatia 25-0; Hardeep Harnal b Chetan Wadhwa 25-5; Yatin Gupta b Sahil Kapoor 21-13; Michael Vishal b Agamdeep 25-1; Gagandeep Singh b Abhinav Khanna 25-0; Gurinder Singh b Kunal Sekhar 25-0.

Women’s singles — Rajlakshmi b Pallavi Piplani 25-0, 25-0; Inder Kanta b Anita Sharma 25-0, 25-4; Bhanu Jain b Eveleen Sidhu 25-5, 25-0; junior girls’ singles — Megha Negi b Babita 25-7.

Sub-junior girls’ singles — Harneet Kaur b Gursimrat Sond 25-0; Vandana b Manpreet Bajwa 13-3; Navjot Kaur b Meenu 25-2; Pamal b Neet Gill 19-0; Tejbir Kaur b Heena Vinayak 12-0; Karanpreet b Gagandeep Kaur 22-21; Gurpreet b Isha Gulati 12-0; Jasmine b Sheenam 11-4.

TT tournament

Rajiv Bajaj entered the singles final of the Tribune table tennis tournament, being played at Tribune Colony here. He defeated Rajan Raikhy 19-21, 21-13, 21-17.

Other results are: singles (third place) — Rajesh Malik b Rajan 14-21, 21-13, 21-19; lucky doubles (third place) — Sukhwinder Sodhi and Vikas b A.C. Bali and Sanjay Bambroo 21-12, 21-12. The finals will be played on Saturday.

Randhir XI win

In the second match of the Summer Cricket tournament, being organised by the Masters Sports Welfare Society at the Sector 34 grounds, Randhir XI beat Neeraj XI by four wickets. Batting first, Neeraj XI made 105 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 18 overs. In reply, Randhir XI achieved the target of 106 runs in 13.3 overs for the loss of six wickets. Puneet with 24 was the highest scorer for the losers. Randhir scored 37 runs for the winners. Manoj of Randhir XI took four wickets for 22 runs.

Cricket trials

SAS NAGAR, May 18 — The Diploma Engineers Association, PUDA has demanded that the government should reconsider transfer orders which had affected a large number of junior engineers.

Mr Amar Singh Randhawa, President of the association, said at a press conference here today that out of the 108 junior engineers working locally 54 had been transferred to other stations without any reason and also in violation of the Punjab Government’s transfer policy. PUDA employees in other cadres had also been transferred but most of them had been adjusted at local stations.

The union leader said in the ministerial staff cadre out of a total of 126 transfers 107 persons had been adjusted locally. In the drawing cadre out of 18 transfers 16 employees had again been adjusted at local stations. There had been no outstation transfers in the case of divisional engineers and class IV employees.

Mr Randhawa said in the case of junior engineers (civil, public health and electrical) 49 out of 54 persons had been given outstation transfers. In the case of junior engineers (buildings) 30 officials out of 31 had been transferred to other stations.