The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Mycoplasma meet continues
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — Deliberations on various topics were held on the second day of the Vth national conference and VIth national workshop of Indian Association of Mycoplasmologists, being organised by the Department of medical Microbiology, PGI.

Today’s academic session started with a lecture on the role of biotechnology in vaccine production and the ongoing work in India, by Dr Pawan Malhotra from the ICGEB, New Delhi. This was followed by a symposium on animal and plant diseases caused by mycoplasmas. Dr K Mohan from Zimbabwe narrated his experience on mycoplasma infections in farm crocodiles, by a new organism described by his group for the first time. Dr D.K Mitra and his co-workers presented their experience of such infections in plants.

Various experts deliberated on the state-of-the-art knowledge about the newly emerging diseases associated with mycoplasma in the theme symposium “Mycoplasma in the new millennium”. Dr Usha Gupta from Delhi, Dr Rama Chaudhary from Delhi, Dr Anil Narang of the PGI and Dr Usha Anand Rao of Chennai spoke on the role of mycoplasma in heart diseases, immune complications, neonatal infections and systemic infections.

In the afternoon, the participants attended the workshop where they learnt various new techniques like SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, PFGE, RFLP, PCR and agarose gel electropheresis, which are nowadays recommended for mycoplasma infections and characterisation of mycoplasma organisms and their epidemiology. The three day conference is being attended by more than 150 experts and delegates from the country and abroad.

In one of the sessions held yesterday, Prof D.N. Garg, president and Dr Rama Chaudhary, Vice President of the Indian Association of Mycoplasmologists (IAM), spoke about the role of the national forum in promoting knowledge, awareness and technical expertise on mycoplasma infections at the national level.

Faith & will — cancer survivors’ mantra
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — There is a proposal to form an apex body at the national level to formulate cancer friendly legislation and ensure the implementation of rights of cancer patients. This was highlighted by the president of Cancer Sahayta Sahyog, Mrs Neelu Tuli while addressing the audience during the celebrations of “Cancer Survivors Day’ at Tagore Theatre today. The day is celebrated by cancer societies across the world on the second Saturday of February to salute those brave warriors, who have fought the disease with great courage.

She revealed that a declaration of the rights of cancer patients had already been made by the All-India Cancer Support Group in New Delhi last year. She disclosed that Sahayta Charitable Welfare Society had ever since its inception in 1998 provided the much needed healing touch to as many as 157 poor and needy patients. The organisation is spending Rs 50,000 to 60,000 per month for the treatment of these cancer patients. She appealed to the people to come forward to help Sahayta in providing quality life to poor cancer patients, even as the quantity of life is in the hands of God.

Presiding over the function, Mr Balram Ji Dass Tandon lauded the role of PGI doctors and the efforts of the Sahayta volunteers in helping these brave warriors wage a battle against the dreaded disease. He donated Rs 50,000 for the treatment of poor patients and assured that he will also look into the demand of granting free travel to cancer patients in buses.

Capt Yogeshwar Tuli, a lymphoma survivor and eight-year-old, Ms Simran Gandhi, jointly bagged the Sahayta Jeevan Shakti award. Mr Tuli attributes his survival to his strong will power and positive thinking. His message for the cancer patients is “Do not lose heart. Have faith in your doctor, God and gather strength to fight it out.”

Simran, who had a tumour in the lung gave solo dance performances during her treatment. All she has to say to fellow cancer patients is “The disease is curable. Have faith in doctors and God”. She was six when the disease was diagnosed and she has fought the disease bravely all through and is fine now.

Sahayta Gagan Toor scholarship initiated by Mrs Toor in the memory of her son Gagan Toor was given to Nisha in paediatric department, who recited a poem, written by her “Jeevan ek sangarsh”.

Sahayta Protsahan scholarship was initiated by Mrs Mohini Loomba in the memory of her husband Col. Iqbal Singh Loomba was given to Mukesh, alypjoma survivor, who was helped by Sahayta in his treatment.

Mrs Raman Goyal, who has been single handedly handling the treatment of several cancer patients and has been donating Rs 10,000 per month for the past one year was given an award for being the best donor of the year.

Later, Prof S.C Sharma, Prof Feroza Patel, Prof Subhash Verma and Assistant Prof Amita Trehan participated in the panel discussion for creating general awareness in people about cancer. They highlighted that cancer is not infectious and can be treated successfully till the last stage and hair loss due to treatment is temporary.

The Sahayta Society also plans to launch Sahayta Santavana Yojna from April, under which pension will be provided to those women, who lose the sole bread winner due to the disease. The money will help them tide over the most difficult period of their life and the programme will be sponsored by Global Cancer Concern India Ltd.

A dance performance of 14-year-old cancer survivor, Kanchan, on “Dil hai chota sa choti si asha” and group dance by St John’s boys on A.R Rahman’s number “Ae maa tujhe salaam” drew loud applause. At the end “Hum honge kamyab ek din” was sung by Sahayta volunteers and all present in the auditorium. Earlier, cancer survivors, Mukesh, Mrs Shashi Pahwa, Capt Tuli and Ms Simran shared their experiences of waging a successful battle against the dreaded disease. They emphasised that positive thinking, self-esteem, faith in doctors and support of family and friends goes a long way in ensuring a bright and cheerful future for the patients.

SPORT

College annual athletics meet
From Tribune Reporters

CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — The annual athletics meet of Government Postgraduate College, Sector 46, was held today. It was inaugurated by Director, CSIO, Mr R.P. Bajpayee, and closing function was presided over by Mr Vijay Sehgal, Editor, Dainik Tribune. Maj D.P. Singh welcomed the chief guests. Gurmeet Kaur and Vikram were declared best athlete in girls' and boys' sections ,respectively.

Results: boys: 100 m — Hardev 1, Satish Kinha 2, Sandeep Kumar 3; 200 m — Deepak Thakur 1, Sandeep Kumar 2, Satish 3; 400 m; Satwinder Singh 1, Vikram 2, Sukhwinder Singh 3; 800 m — Harsh Kamal 1, Sukhwinder Singh 2; Ranvir Singh 3; 1500 m — Suraj Joshi 1, Malkiat Singh 2; Ranbir Singh 3; 5000 m — Jaswant Singh 1, Suraj Joshi 2, Harsh kamal 3; shot put — Dheeraj 1, Ravinder Singh 2, Amit Sharma 3; discus throw — Bandna 1, Renu 2, Gurmeet 3; long jump — Bandna 1, Gurmeet 2, Mukesh 3 — high jump: Mukesh 1, Gurmeet 2, Shweta 3. girls: Kulwinder 1, Mukesh 2,Gurmeet 3; 200 m — Kulwinder kaur 1, Gurmeet 2, Mukesh 3; 400 m — Mukesh 1, Gurmeet 2, Kulwinder 3; shot put — Bandna 1, Renu 2, Gurmeet 3.

Marathon today
The second Servo Chandigarh marathon will begin tomorrow with nearly 100 runners vying for top honours in full and half marathon for men and women respectively. There will also be a mini marathon for children.

Cricket tourney
In the first match of the Pandit Tikka Lal Taploo memorial cricket tournament played at Gursagar grounds, United India Insurance Company Limited outplayed Harmukh Cricket club by 25 runs. The meet was inaugurated by Mr Venod Sharma, a former minister.

Tribune TT
Munish and Sukhwinder outplayed Ashok Bali and Vikas Ghai 21-10, 23-21 in a regular doubles match of the Tribune table tennis tournament. Other results are: Rajeev Bajaj and Rajan Rikhi b Surinder Rawat and Arvind Saini; Rajan Rikhi and Rajeev Bajaj b Vikas Ghai and Ashok Bali 21-18, 21-15; Ashok Bali and Vikas Ghai b Surinder Rawat and Arvind Saini 21-2, 21-17; above 40 singles —Parmod Lama b Vinod Vadka; lucky doubles — Umesh and Raju b Navtej Singh and Sushil Tiwari 21-16, 21-18.

PSEB win
PATIALA: Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has won the All-India Electricity Board general trophy in sports for the 21st year in succession by bagging the trophy for the 1999-2000.

PSEB clinched the trophy by standing first among 28 state electricity boards after accumulating 35 points. PSEB was followed by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board with 19 points, while Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply stood third at 18 points.

PSEB stood first in badminton, basketball, tennis, football and table tennis. They stood second in athletics, wrestling and bridge and third in volleyball.

Punjab State Electricity Board also beat AIR, Jalandhar, by eight wickets to enter the final of the senior cricket club tournament, being played at Bhawanigar, near here.

Brief scores: AIR, Jalandhar 209 all out (Vishal Sethi 31, Samrat 42, R. Pandey 3 for 43, Sukhwinder Tinku 2 for 25, Chandershekhar 3 for 45); PSEB 212 for 8 (Sandeep Kohli 75, Rajesh Patha 65, Sanjeev Kapuria 20 n,o).

Weightlifting meet
AMBALA: Ambala Weightlift-ing Associa-tion will organise a competition on February 18 in DAV College, Ambala City. The secretary of the association, Mr K. Sood, said entries would be accepted till February 16.

Athletics events
KALKA: The annual athletics meet of the local Government Postgraduate College started here on Friday. As many as 500 students are likely to participate in 26 events during the two-day meet.

India must have electronic shooting ranges: coach
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — Sanjay Chakraverty, the coach of shooting Olympian Anjali Ved Pathak, came all the way from Mumbai to have interaction with budding youngsters here at the Sector 25 Patiali ki Rao shooting range today. He came at the invitation of Chandigarh Rifle Association. In an informal chat with this reporter, Chakraverty, who had retired from the Navy and was now a state coach of the Maharashtra Rifle Association, said that shooting was the most sought after game in North-West and South India.

Chakraverty lamented that despite the good showing by our shooters, we lack in terms of ranges. What was astonishing was that there was not a single electronic range in India, whereas when our shooters go to take part in international meets, they had to face stiff competition. He said at Munich he saw how weekly tournaments were arranged at the national level for shooters and the ranges there were quite adequate in number.

Chakraverty was of the view that the sport become quite popular in India ever since Jaspal Rana hit the international scene.

Chakraverty praised Sector 25 shooting range and said that there was no other range comparable to this in India. He said that UT Administration should not neglect this range since it was capable of producing international level shooters and also of hosting national level shooting meet in all events.

Olympian Abhinav Bindra began practising at this very range under the guidance of Col JS Dhillon. Then it was Sabeeha Dhillon, who won national junior title last year. Then trainees of repute included DS Chandel, Preeti Sharma, Prabhleen, Chetanpreet, Tamanna, Shaleen, Anu Parasher, Holinder Singh, Jasbir Dhillon, Dilsher and Rajiv Bhatt among others.

Chakraverty opined that for any shooter to come up, it requires the active involvement of parents, dedication, concentration of mind, help of the concerned institution and the association concerned. He felt that National Rifle Association of India should conduct tournaments at the regional level to further give more exposure to the shooters.