‘Bring down neonatal deaths’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — The risk of a newborn baby dying in India is roughly 10 to 15 times more than any developed country. In India, every year as many as 12 lakh newborn babies die within the first month of their birth. Out of these, while one third die due to infection, the other main causes of the newborn deaths are asphyxia , low birth weight and premature deliveries.

The aim of the week-long National Neonatal Workshop which concluded here today, was to reduce the neonatal mortalities by at least one to two per cent every year, which according to the specialists can be possible only deliveries take place in hospitals under the supervision of a trained staff.

The concluding session of the workshop, organised at the Government Hospital by the Chandigarh Administration in collaboration with the Indian Association of Paediatrics, especially focussed on the management of low birthweight babies, hypothermia and feeding fluid and electrolytes in these babies.

Dr Minocha stresses that to bring down the neonatal deaths, it is equally important give nourishing and balanced food to future mothers from adolescence itself.

‘‘Besides,’’ adds Dr Upendra Narang, it is equally important for all expectant mothers to get themselves registered in the primary health centres. Interestingly, even in a modern city like Chandigarh, 10 per cent deliveries do not take place under proper medical care. The country over, the figures are more alarming as 75 per cent of the births take place at home with many families not even taking the assistance of a trained birth attendant or a dai, let alone a doctor or a nurse.

Most of these deaths within the first month of the life, due to infections, premature births and breathing problems, are very much preventable, with a little care of course. According to the neonatologists, care of the newborns begin much before the birth and includes age of the mother, interval during pregnancies and care during pregnancy time. Moreover, effective resuscitation for asphyxia, one of the major killers of the newborn, establishes respiration and ensures better survival of the baby.

During the week-long sensitisation for the doctors, nurses and paramedics, all these factors for safeguarding the health and lives of the newborns were dwelled upon. Besides, a common disorder, jaundice, which affects as many as 65 per cent of the full term babies was also discussed.

According to Dr Kanya Mukhopadhyay, for physiological jaundice no medication is required, but pathological jaundice, which might affect two to five per cent of the babies , requires immediate action. However, it is only the doctor who can differentiate between pathological and physiological jaundice, therefore, a newborn needs to be shown to a specialist at the first appearance of the symptoms.

Pathological jaundice largely occurs when the blood group of the expecting mother is RH-ve. Doctors lay stress on such mothers to go in for a anti-D injection after her first delivery.

The panel of specialists during these sessions, which also included Dr Saurabh Dutta and Dr Bhavneet also discussed other issues including some age-old beliefs practiced on newborn babies. The doctors stress on a specific need to differentiate between the good and the bad before practicing the age-old customs.

With a specific stress on the customary janam ghutti, doctors say that there is no evidence that a new born needed anything other than mother’s milk during the first six months of its life. Moreover, at times, these ghuttis may contain heavy metals, besides other substances, whose combination is not specified on the label.

— A healthy mother gives birth to a healthy baby. For that she needs adequate diet, rest and a regular check-up.

—All deliveries should be essentially in a clean and warm environment

— All deliveries should be conducted under a trained birth attendant

—Prevent the baby from developing an infection by keeping it clean and warm.

— Establishing breast feeding as early as possible.

— Immunisation at the right time.

— Seek medical help early in case the baby is sick and transport the baby to the nearest hospital, properly covered and warm.

Health services on IAS pattern needed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — As part of the martyrdom fortnight of Lala Lajpat Rai, Jan Shakti, a social organisation, organised an open discussion on ‘‘India still fighting for its freedom against disease’’ here yesterday.

Brig ML Kataria (retd) lamented that even after 53 years of Independence, the rural and slum areas, which constituted 80 per cent of the population spent only about 20 per cent of the total expenditure of government medical expenditure.

Dr Satnam Singh, Executive Chairperson and Honorary Director of the Regional Institute of Public Health, while expressing concern at poor public health services, wanted an all-India health service on the pattern of the IAS.

Prof J.D. Wig, Additional Professor of General Surgery at the PGI, said though the world had won over diphtheria, tetanus, polio and smallpox, yet it had failed to provide nutritious diet proper sanitation and hygiene.

Prof S.L. Goel (retd) from Panjab University lamented the failure of the government machinery in providing the health services to the masses. Dr D.V. Jindal, Deputy Director of the Punjab Healthcare System, wanted quality of services of doctors in the primary health centres to be improved and referral system to be adopted.

Mr Onkar Chand, Secretary of the Servants of the People Society, threw light on the state of health in villages and slums of Chandigarh. He said the enormity of the problem could be seen from the fact that every third child in the villages and slums of Chandigarh was malnourished and every fourth child had impaired vision. Drugs and alcoholism had tightened their grip and the number of HIV carriers were on the rise, he added.

Prof P.P. Arya, convenor of Janshakti, wanted a community-based programme on healthcare through healthcare workers reaching the rural and the slum areas.

PU enter semis of soccer meet
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — Panjab University Chandigarh, Punjabi University Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, have made it to the semi-finals of the North Zone Inter-University Football (men’s) Tournament. The tournament is being played on the PU grounds here.

In the matches played today, PU Chandigarh beat PTU Jalandhar, 10-0, GNDU Amritsar beat Kurukshetra University, 3-1, Punjabi University Patiala beat Delhi University, 1-0, and MDU Rohtak beat HNB Garhwal University Srinagar, 2-1.

Club football
Youngsters Club won the Sanjay Trophy after beating Lalu Ram Club, 3-0, in the Chandigarh Senior Club Football League Championship that concluded in the Sector 17 stadium here today.

Mr Ashwani Luthra, IRS and Income Tax Commissioner, gave away the prizes to the winners.

Ball badminton
Amit Chaudhary of the Sector 32 SD Public School and Anisha Bhatti of the Sector 36 MCM DAV College will lead the UT boys’ and girls’ teams, respectively, in the 46th Junior National Ball Badminton Championship. The meet is to be held at Bhilai (MP) from November 26 to 29.

The teams are as follows: Boys — Amit Chaudhary, Mukesh Sharma, Ajit Anjan Singh, Chetan Suri, Munish Rana, Deepak, Shiv Kumar, Arun Kumar; girls — Anisha Bhatti, Sonika, Monika Panjla, Sonia Mahajan, Monika, K. Smiti, Jagdeep Kaur and Monu Dhiman.

Manu Rajput, Gurjit Kaur and Baljinder Singh Banwait will accompany the teams as officials.

Inter-college cricket
A superb performance by Vipin Saggar (86 runs and three wickets for 41 runs) helped the Sector 10 DAV College beat Panjab University campus team by 137 runs in a match of the Kapil Dev Trophy Inter-College Cricket Tournament in the Sector 16 stadium here today.

Brief scores: DAVC-10 — 302 for 5 in 40 overs (Ravi Dhaliwal 87, Vipin Saggar 86, Lakshay Sharma 38, Vinod Thakur 21 n.o., Avtar Chand 20, Jasminder Singh 2 for 51); PU campus — 165 all out in 36.1 overs (Jasminder Singh 59, Gulraj Khan 28, Kamal Walia 4 for 22, Vipin 3 for 41, Rajesh Sehgal 2 for 40).

Billiards meet
Ricky Singh has entered the semi-finals of the 17th N.K. Dugggal Memorial Chandigarh State Senior and Junior Billiards and Snooker Championship that is being played here. Ricky beat Sanchit Gupta in straight frames, 3-0, today.

In other matches of the day, Pramod Kumar defeated Amit Gulati, 3-2. In another match, Amit Jindal beat Raj Kamal Thakur, 3-2. In the last match of the day, Karan Handa beat Anshuman Maraha, 3-0.

Ranji player
Rakesh Dogra will represent Haryana in a Ranji Trophy match against Services that is to be played from November 23 to 26 in Delhi.

Selection trials
The UT Education Department will hold trials to select cricket teams of various age groups from November 23 to 28 in the Sector 16 stadium at 2.30 pm daily.

The schedule for the trials is as follows: Boys (under-14) — November 23; girls (under-19) November 24; boys (under-19) — November 27; and boys (under-16) November 28.

A promising shuttler
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — Gutta Jwala, the 17-year-old Hyderabad based badminton player, who stormed the Indian Uber cup team past February, was here in the city for taking part in the ongoing National Badminton Championships.

Mr S.M. Arif, chief national badminton coach, recalled that about 11 years back, Ms Kranti, her father, brought Jwala to him as he wanted her to become a badminton player. Arif advised him that one child should be trained in gymnastics and swimming for at least two years and then he would start her training in badminton. Kranti said that it was Arif who then taught whole heartedly to his daughter and today whatever Jwala had achieved was due to the efforts of this coach.

He said that Jwala does Yoga and other physical exercises according to the schedule prepared by her coach. Apart from that she also does weight training. He said that either he or her mother accompanies her for various tournaments in India and abroad.

Jwala shot into limelight in 1995 when she represented Andhra Pradesh in the National Mini Sub-Junior Badminton Championships. Later in 1996 mini nationals at Trichur, she won the title. In 1998 junior nationals in Vijayawada, she remained the doubles runner up along with Shruti Kurien. She has also played in the European Circuit Tournament.

Again at Kohima nationals in 1999, Jwala was runner up in doubles and winner in team event. Jwala and Shruti recently reached the last eight of the 5th World Junior Doubles Meet in China which was a big achievement, said Mr Arif. She also played in the Asian Badminton Championship at Kyoto (Japan) recently.

On November 18, while playing at Sector 42 indoor hall, she helped her team to retain the team championship title in the Shafi Qureshi Cup.

When asked, Arif told that presently she was little overweight, but that was not a big worry and if she really worked hard, he expected that in times to come, she would be the number one player of the country. He said that her target was 2004 Athens Olympics.

16 firms default on EPF, get notices
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner has issued show-cause notices to as many as 16 establishments of Chandigarh and Punjab which are defaulting on depositing of Employees Provident Fund (EPF).

In the notices the companies have been asked as to why arrest warrants should not be issued against them during November for not depositing the due PF of the employees.

Sources say that while the department is busy in identifying a large number of such companies both in Punjab as well as the UT, notices to these 16 have already been despatched. They have been given 15 days’ time to explain their position. failing which arrest warrants would be issued to the managements of the companies.

Incidentally, it has also been found that a large number of defaulting companies have also changed their addresses a few times to dupe the Regional Provident Fund Commission office. Mr J. R. Sharma, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, conceded to Chandigarh Tribune that it becomes difficult for them to take action against these defaulters as they have been constantly changing their addresses.

The establishments which are facing action for defaulting on paying EPF contributions are Onkar Singh and Lalit Kumar, Gardiwal, Hoshiarpur; Domino’s Leathers, Banmajra, Kurali, Ropar; Hindustan Tools, Rajpura, Patiala; Calcutta Construction Co; Ghanauli, Ropar; Indra Motors (P) Ltd., Kurali Tirath Ram Naresh Kumar, BKO Sagran, Hoshiarpur; Surinder Pal Singh, Amrit Villa, Hoshiarpur; Mahaluxmi Rice Mills, Rohini, Patiala; Harbans Singh, Mehar Singh, Ghariman, Kharar; Sutlej Construction Pvt. Ltd, Mani Majra; Baba Ajit Singh Cold Storage, Dialpura, Rajpura; Samana Steel Limited Samana; Sewak Rice Mills Devigarh, Patiala; Puri Rice Mills, Uccha Pind, Sanghol; Eagle Tyres Pvt Ltd. Chanthol, Kharar; and Meter and Instruments, Industrial area, Chandigarh.

Fruitless auction for HUDA
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Nov 21 — The Haryana Urban Development Authority received only Rs 7,88,000 in an auction of commercial sites here. Only a few bidders were there for the auction. HUDA could sell only eight of the 65 commercial sites by the end of the day.

Against a reserve price of Rs 5,40,40,000, HUDA received Rs 5,48,28,000 in the auction of seven booths and one hotel site in the town. The property that went under the hammer included 46 booths, 15 SCOs, one showroom, one hotel site and two sites for iron-and-steel units.

The highest bid for a booth went up to Rs 13.40 lakh against a reserve price of Rs 10.90 lakh for a corner booth in Sector 11. A Sector 9 booth was sold at Rs 15.06 lakh against a reserve price of Rs 13.75 lakh. A Sector 2 booth fetched the minimum price. The highest bid for it was of Rs 8.01 lakh against a reserve price of Rs 7.63 lakh.

30 shopkeepers challaned
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — The UT Enforcement Wing challaned 30 shopkeepers during a drive in Sectors 18 and 22 yesterday to clear the pavements and corridors from encroachers. While 15 shopkeepers were issued challans in Sector 18 radio market for sub-letting the verandahs in front of their shops to mechanics to carry out their repair work, those in Sector 22 were challaned for encroaching upon public corridors by displaying their ware.

The UT Anti-Enforcement Magistrate, Mr H.S. Sohal, when contacted, said that they were not deterred by the opposition of the Sector 19 Sadar Bazar shopkeepers. They would again carry out the anti-encroachment operation in the area once the seven days' time given by the police to the shopkeepers to voluntarily remove the encroachments expired. More such drives would be undertaken in the next few days to clear these areas of illegal structures.