HEALTH

Citizens council to celebrate World Elder Day
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Sept 16 — The Medical Aid and Anti Drug Abuse Committee of the Ludhiana Citizens Council will celebrate October 1 as the World Elder Day.

A health contest for elderly citizens will be organised at Shri Rama Krishna Charitable Hospital, according to Mr Ajay Jain, secretary of the committee. The last date for submitting the registration forms for the contest in September 25. The committee also organised a plenary session on “Population ageing: Challenges for Ludhiana City.”

Mr Prem Narain Gupta, chairperson of the committee, while opening the discussion and introducing the theme, stated that on an average, today’s 70-year-old can look forward to at least another decade or two of life. The challenge is the quality and cost of a long life. Will these added years be healthy and productive or marked by disease and disability? Will the growing population of older people contribute to the families or will care of the ageing overwhelm member states’ health and social services?

Experts representing different specialities felt that population ageing has become an important development requiring urgent attention and action. Participants elaborated that population projections indicated that the number of elderly will increase significantly over the next 25 years while the working age population declines. It was concluded that maintaining healthy lifestyle in old age is associated with health gain. Those with low income, very old, chronically ill and elderly males are at particular risk of nutritional deficiencies.

Dr S.K. Sinha stated that ageing aggravates the magnitude of mental health problems and as such, has a major impact in any given population’s overall level of mental health. It is estimated that by 2010, Ludhiana will have a sufficient number of people suffering from Alzhemier’s disease. This disease is associated with destruction of brains cells, which in turn is accompanied by loss in short and long term memory and other intellectual capabilities.

Physical exercise programmes for elderly people represent a good investment for health promotion because of considerable potential for health gain. Mr Subhash Jain stated that health promotion activities in Ludhiana should target the most disadvantaged groups in the society. Mr Satinder Aggarwal felt that on a long term level, priority needs to be given to ensuring that elderly people have adequate pension to enable healthy living environment, life choices and access to health and social life.

This year as per Mr Ajay Jain, secretary, Medical Aid and Anti Drug Abuse Committee, the venue of the celebration will be Sh Rama Krishna Charitable Hospital, Model Town, Ludhiana.

SPORT

KVM win under-19 cricket tourney
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 16 — City cricketers won the Punjab School Inter-Zone Cricket Tournament (under-19 and under-16, which concluded at A.S. Senior Secondary School, Khanna.

Kundan Vidya Mandir (KVM) School, (Ludhiana zone I) defeated Kila Raipur zone by a margin of six wickets to win the under-19 title. Sanaan Vidya Mandir (SVM) School (Ludhaina zone-I) defeated Sahnewal zone by a margin of nine wickets to win under-16 title.

In the final for the under-19 title, KVM Kila won the toss and invited opponents to bat first. Raipur zone could not face the fiery bowling by Karan Puri and Karan Goyalwho took three wickets each. The Kila Raipur team scored 82 runs in 18 overs. KVM achieved the target of 83 runs in 14 overs after loosing four wickets.

In the under-16 final, SVM won the toss and invited Sahnewal zone to bat first, which, could not face the fiery bowling by SVM. It could score only 29 run. SVM achieved the target of 30 runs in just 3.4 overs with nine wickets to spare.

When bricks served as stumps
From Our Correspondent

BADDOWAL (Ludhiana), Sept 16 — Children had to play with block of bricks instead of wooden stumps in the week-long Punjab School Inter-Zone Cricket Tournament that concluded at Government High School here.

Not only the ground was ill-maintained but the pitch was also uneven and dotted with potholes. The most surprising fact was that the tournament organiser, the district senior secondary school tournament committee, could not even provide players with proper equipment.

Some teams had to bring their own equipment like wickets and mats. The organisers did not provide umpires. Mr Sukhdev Lal, Principal of the school, who is also convener of the district senior secondary school tournament committee said they could not provide proper equipment due to the lack of funds.

He said no funds were being provided for the organisation of such tournaments even though money was taken from the private schools by the tournament committee. He stated that the private schools pay Rs 2,000 to the committee while government schools pay 2 per cent of their amalgamated fund as the entry fee.

Defending the school for the non-maintenance of the ground he said though they take Rs 20 to 40 as sports fund from each student annually but 85 per cent of the total collection has to be deposited with the state government. As a result of which only about Rs 4000 remain with the school for carrying out all sports activities.