HEALTH

2-day workshop at DMCH
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Aug 17 — Dayanand Medical College and Hospital will organise a two-day workshop on ‘Microsurgical repair of bracial plexus injuries’ on Friday and Saturday at the Dumra Auditorium.

The workshop will be conducted by Dr A.K. Gupta, plastic and microvascular surgeon from Mumbai. About 80 delegates and medical students are expected to attend the workshop. Dr G.S. Wander, Medical Superintendent, in a press note, said the aim of the workshop was to inform the doctors about the latest developments in this field through seminars and live operative sessions.

Mr Prem Nath Gupta, Secretary, Managing Society of DMCH, will be the Chief Guest. Dr Poonam Singh will deliver a lecture on the anatomy of the brasial plexus injuries on the first day, Dr J.L. Bassi, will give a clinical presentation and Dr Gagandeep Singh will talk about the diagnosis. 

SPORT

Basketball championships begin
From A Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Aug 17 — All arrangements for the 51st Punjab Junior Basketball Championship scheduled to begin tomorrow at Badal in Muktsar district have been finalised.

Mr Teja Singh, general seceretary, Punjab Basketball Association (PBA), disclosed here today that Lt Gen (Retd.) J.F.R Jacob, Governor, Punjab, will be the chief guest while Mr R.S Gill , IGP, Zone -1, Patiala will preside over the function. Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab, will distribute the prizes on Sunday. Four basketball courts including two floodlit courts, have been made ready for the championship. An electronic scoreboard will also be used. Mr K.S. Cheema, Deputy Commissioner, said two reception counters at Bathinda and Malout had been set up.

Three international players, Jasjit Singh (captain), Lakhvinder Singh and Fatehjit Singh, are in the Ludhiana district boys team. The other members of team are Ravi Kumar, Amit Prashar, Kuldeep Kumar, Sachin Bhanout, Harsimranjit Singh, Sumer Singh Aulakh, Arjinder Singh, Vijay Kumar, Vikrant.

The members of the girls team from Ludhiana are Kamaljit Singh, Harvinder Kaur, Harmininder Kaur, Manpreet Kaur (senior), Rajni Devi, Rekhi Devi, Taranbir Kaur, Jaswinder Kaur, Manpreet Kaur(junior), Sarabjit Kaur, Zeenu Grewal.

Mr Devinder Singh Dhindsa is the coach of the two teams. Mr Balkar Singh Brar is the manager of the boys team, while Mr Vijay Chopra is the manager of the girls team. 

ADMINISTRATION

Assi Kalan gets vet hospital, bridge 
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Aug 17 — Mr Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister, Punjab, today said the state government had chalked out a comprehensive plan for the fast integrated development in all villages and Rs 435 crores was being spent for providing basic facilities, including paving of streets and peripheries, construction of the drainage system and streetlights during the current financial year.

Mr Kahlon was addressing a function at Assi Kalan village, about 20 km from here, after inaugurating a 24-hour power supply project in the village. Dr Rattan Singh, Animal Husbandry Minister, Punjab, and Mr Jagdish Singh Garcha, Technical Education Minister, Punjab, also inaugurated a veterinary hospital building and a bridge, respectively, in the village.

The minister said that Punjab had remained completely neglected during the long tenure of Congress governments at the centre, which had always adopted anti-Punjab policies. The present government in Punjab, headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, had succeeded in getting a large number of big industrial and other development projects cleared from the NDA government.

Mr Kahlon further said that the Punjab Government, after strengthening the shattered economy of the state, had launched a large number of development and welfare schemes for all sections of society. The government had approved a Rs 2700 crore project for the four lanning of all major highways and construction of new bridges in the state. He said that during the past three years, new rural link roads measuring 2,134 km had been constructed. Under the pension schemes of the Social Security Department, a record increase of 100 per cent had been recorded in the number of old age pensioners.

Dr Rattan Singh said that the state government had decided to accord priority to further develop dairy, poultry and fishery in the state under the diversification programme to enhance the income of the farmers. He said that the young dairy farmers would be given subsidised loans and proper training to set up big dairy farms. He further said that the state government had developed modern fish seed farms and nine private seed nurseries had been taken on lease to produce 620 lakh of fish seed in Punjab.

On the implications of the GATT agreement on dairy in Punjab, the minister said that the state government was making efforts to ensure some kind of insulation for Punjab dairy farmers by getting the excise duty enhanced on the import of milk products. He called upon the youth to adopt agriculture related self-employment ventures under different promotion schemes launched by the state government. The minister appreciated the efforts of the villagers for making contribution amounting to Rs 3 lakh for the construction of a veterinary hospital.

Mr Jagdish Singh Garcha, Technical Education Minister, Punjab, said that the state government, during the past three years, had laid stress to provide vocational training to the youth with a view to divert them from agriculture to the industrial sector and for this purpose, liberal and subsidised loans were being arranged from financial institutions.

He said that the education system had also been revamped and the computer training programmes introduced. Mr Garcha said that a crash programme had been launched for the repair of all the link roads in the Kila Raipur area and announced that a grant would be provided for the village primary school.