HEALTH

Pvt nursing homes seek use of Sec 16 incinerator
By Poonam Batth
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — Private nursing homes in the city have urged the UT administration to allow them to use the newly-installed incinerator in the Sector 16 General Hospital for disposing of their bio-medical waste.

Sources reveal that a delegation of the Chandigarh branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), recently informed a senior UT official that as per the union government's notification, it was mandatory for all hospitals, both government and private, to incinerate their bio-medical waste. However, the said proposal is presently being examined by the Director Health Services, UT.

It may be recalled that as per the notification, nursing homes in the city with 50 beds and above but less than 200 beds and those with less than 50 beds are required to make proper arrangements for disposing of their hospital waste by December 31, 2001, and December 31, 2002.

Dr Neeraj Kumar, who owns a private nursing home, pointed out that the nursing homes in the city neither have the money nor the required space to install incinerators in their premises. Hence, the Administration should consider their proposal of allowing them to use the Sector 16 incinerator by paying the fixed monthly charges. Other doctors also maintain that installation of independent incinerators will be a wastage as the 20-to-30 bedded hospitals in the city do not generate that kind of waste and will only lead to noise and air pollution in this clean and green city.

Sources further disclose that the nursing homes will be required to transport their waste to the site of incineration at their own cost. They are also to contact the Municipal Corporation to arrange a vehicle, which will pick up the bio-medical waste from their respective nursing homes and leave it in Sector 16. If this does not work out, then they have to get together and arrange for a common vehicle, it is learnt. The charges will, perhaps, be fixed on the basis of number of beds in a nursing home.

According to the Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr G. Dewan, the incinerator which became functional 10 days ago has the capacity to incinerate 100 kg bio-medical waste per hour and can be used continuously for 8 hours. At present, it is only being used to incinerate 60 kg of the General Hospital waste. However, if the quantity of waste to be incinerated increases, it can even be used for 8 hours each in three shifts.

Dr Dewan explained that under Schedule I of Rule 5 of Management and Handling Rules, 1998, the bio-medical waste for incineration has to be disposed of with yellow colour coding and a plastic bag is to be used as a container. Further, there are four categories of garbage to be incinerated. Category I includes human tissues, organs and body parts; category II includes animal waste and waste generated in veterinary hospitals; category III includes microbiology and bio-technology waste such as waste from laboratory cultures and category IV includes solid waste items contaminated with blood and body fluids, including cotton, dressings, soiled plaster casts, bedding and other material contaminated with blood. Therefore, the nursing homes should ensure that the waste they send for incineration falls in any of these categories of bio-medical waste. No plastic material should b sent as it can destroy the incinerator, he added. The liquid waste should preferably be disinfected through chemical treatment and discharged into the drains.

At present, some city nursing homes are selling plastic containers and other waste generated from disposable items such as tubing, catheters, intravenous sets, bottles etc to junk dealers, whereas all other hospital waste is being dumped in the sanitary boxes of the corporation daily. In some cases, even the pathological waste comprising human anatomical waste, human foetus and other solid items contaminated with blood are being dumped here and there. The dumping of chemical waste and other potentially infectious waste such as syringes, blood bags, uro-bags and surgical gloves in the open is also harmful for most of it is being salvaged for reselling.

Women, kids get medical aid
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — The Chandigarh Press Club's newly formed Women Journalists Committee today organised a medical camp for the women and children of the families of the Press community.

Renowned gynaecologists of Chandigarh Dr Mangala Dogra, Dr Meenu Sabharwal, Dr Rashmi Garg Singh, Dr Avneet Kaur and paediatricians Dr Inderjit Singh Bhatia and Dr Sandeep Mangat, offered voluntary services at the Press Club from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Women responded overwhelmingly in seeking consultation as well as physical check-up. A large number of children, too, were examined.

Along with the doctor's examination a live 'face to face' with the doctors was also organised. Both women and men raised a number of questions about women's health and other related issues. Doctors answered the questions with passionate involvement.

Nearly 100 women and children benefited from the camp.

180 donate blood
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — More than 180 persons donated blood at the fifth blood donation camp organised by the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association at lecture Theatre, PGI, yesterday.

The camp was inaugurated by Mr O.P Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Cycles, Ludhiana. He lauded the efforts of the association for helping the Blood Bank Society in summer months. He later awarded mementoes to the donors from various parts of the region. Mr Munjal also gave away prizes to the deserving thalassaemic children and promised to adopt five children for medical help.

He promised to help in creating awareness for prevention of the disease by giving advertisements in newspapers, putting banners in hospitals and at other major public places. Even slogans would be printed by his group in all the diaries for the year 2001.

SPORT

Triple win for Ankit
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — Ankit Raj of DAV Model School, Sector 15, won three titles in the PD Vashist Memorial Total Tennis Tournament which concluded today at the Sector 6 Lake Club here. Ankit, aged 15, who had won the under-18 boys' title yesterday, claimed the under-16 title today. He defeated 13-year-old Harneet Singh in a long and tough final in the under-16 section.

Harneet, after losing the first set, 1-6, won the second, 6-4. He went down fighting, 4-6, in the last set to give Ankit his third title of the tournament. Earlier, Ankit had also won the boys' under-18 doubles title with Harneet after beating Yuvraj Chaudhary and Sanam K. Singh. Yesterday, Ankit had beaten Sahil Thapa in the final of the under-18 boys' section.

Mallika Malhotra proved too good for Amanpreet Kaur and won the under-18 girls' title in straight sets.

Mr Satish Chandra, IAS and Managing Director of the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO), gave away the prizes.

Results (all finals): Boys (under-16) — Ankit Raj b Harneet Singh, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; girls (under-18) — Mallika Malhotra b Amanpreet Kaur, 6-1, 6-3; boys (under-18 doubles) — Ankit Raj and Harneet Singh b Yuvraj Chaudhary and Sanam K. Singh, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

Parent and child event — Atul Gandhi and Viraj Gandhi b Ramesh Bhandari and Rohan Bhandari, 6-1, 6-1.

Gupta is new CBA chief
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — Mr Gian Chand Gupta will be the new president of the Chandigarh Badminton Association. This was decided unanimously at the annual general meeting of the association, convened at a hotel here today.

In another development, Mr D.K. Mukerjee, the founder of the CBA, offered to vacate the place of Chairman (Emeritus) held by him. The House unanimously decided to made him Founder Patron of the association. Mr M.C. Sethi who was re-elected President of the CBA in its last elections held in 1999, was elevated to the post of Chairman (Emeritus). The four-year term of office-bearers otherwise ends in 2003. Mr Inder Pal Singh, Assistant Secretary of Chandigarh Sports Council, attended the meeting as observer.

The positions vacated will be filled later. At present, Mr Subhash Nagpal is senior Vice-President. There are three Vice-Presidents — Mr B.D. Gandhi, Mr M.R. Gupta and Mr Ramesh Kapoor. Mr Surinder Mahajan is Technical Adviser, Mr Virinder Mehta Joint Secretary, Col Raj Parmar Joint Secretary and Mr Arvind Deputy Secretary.

Later, briefing newspersons, the new President, an ex-mayor of city and at present a municipal councillor, told that the detailed calendar of activities of the association would be released soon. He said being a regular badminton player, he was always for the promotion of the game in the city and elsewhere. He commended that the existing association comprised former badminton players only, which was a healthy sign for the game. He also praised the Secretary, Mr TPS Puri, who was elected last year, as the biggest asset of the CBA as he has vast international badminton experience and contacts. He also announced that any badminton player of the city winning title at any of national championship would be given a cash prize of Rs 25,000 which he had arranged through an NRI.

Mr M.C. Sethi told that in the past few years, the association had organised a number of matches, like the North Zone Tournament, which was mainly due to teamwork. Mr DK Mukerjee termed the present arrangement of the association as excellent as now it could hold the Junior National Badminton Championship in December this year, which had a budget of more than Rs 15 lakh. Mr TPS Puri, who was also a former Indian team coach of the BAI, said various committees for the smooth conduct of the Junior National Meet would be formed as now they had less than six months left to organise this event.

Skating tourney to be introduced
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, July 2 — Skating activities in this region will get another boost with the introduction of the Sardar Sewa Singh Johal Memorial Gold Cup Tournament which is to be held from July 14 to 16. Sardar Sewa Singh Johal, who passed away at the age of 66 a few months ago, was a keen skater and promoter of the sport. He had helped in establishing the Roller Hawks Club a few years ago for conducting regular skating tournaments.

His son Balwinder Singh Johal, a renowned skating coach, and the other members of the club have joined hands to organise this regional tournament. The venues chosen for the meet are the Sector 10 Skating Rink and Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula.

Sewa Singh Johal was also the Vice-President of the Roller Skating Association of Panchkula. Born in 1934 in Pune, he studied at Amritsar and retired as Under Secretary in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

Mr Inder Pal Singh, Adviser to the President of the Roller Skating Federation of India, said the meet had been approved by the Haryana Roller Skating Association and the RSFI. He said nearly 300 skaters of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh were expected to participate in the meet. The tournament will be conducted according to the rules of the RSFI.

At the 37th National Skating Meet held here in December 1999, Sewa Singh Johal had said the sport should get due representation at international level and should be included in the Asian Games and the other big tournaments.

The entries for the tournament close with Balwinder Singh, skating coach, at Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula, on July 13.