HEALTH

‘Teenage pregnancies, STDs on the rise’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh , May 18
There has been an alarming increase in cases of teenage pregnancy which has also led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases and HIV cases in this age group said Prof S.B.S. Mann, Director Principal, GMCH, while making inaugural address at the one-day symposium on “Adolescent sex education,” here today.

Applauding the role of Department of Psychiatry in arranging talks on the subject, Prof Mann said, in our society, the concept of sex education was yet to gain the required momentum.

As many as 32 students including 15 girls and 17 boys from 20 city schools participated in the seminar.

Mr R.S. Gujral, Secretary, Medical Education and Research, speaking during the valedictory function also stressed the need for sex education among adolescents. Problems multiply when elders try to evade discussion on these sensitive issues and exposure to television makes children vulnerable to high-risk behaviour, he said.

Speaking on anatomy and sexual-physiological and psychological aspects, Dr Suresh Kumar, said guilt and anxiety could seriously hamper sexual performance. Certain misconceptions due to prevailing cultural beliefs also lead to genesis of psycho-sexual problems, said Dr Kumar.

The head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Prof Sarla Malhotra, while discussing the human reproductive cycle said, “Age of onset of menses has decreased to 10 years nowadays and at times, menarche can also occur as early as eight years of age. She said parents should try to dispel stress and guilt in a child related to her menstrual cycle.

Nurses Week concludes
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh , May 18
International Nurses Week celebrations by the Trained Nurses Association of India, Chandigarh branch, concluded here today. Theme of the week-long function was “Nurses always there for you — united against violence”.

Dr Rameshwar Chander , Director, Health Services, gave away the prizes to winners of various competitions.

Ms Renu Masih of the GMCH bagged the first prize in the debate competition, while Ms Seema Rani won the second prize in the same category. The third prize was bagged by Ms Seema George, an intern in the PGI College of Nursing.

In a poster-making competition which depicted the role of nurses in preventing violence and in taking care of the victims, Ms Manninder Kaur begged the first prize. The third prize went to Ms Sukhjeet Kaur, while an intern from the PGI College of Nursing won the second prize.

Ms Kaushal, Ms Sukhdeep and Ms Vikram, nurses from the GMCH, Sector 32, won the first prizes in various sports competitions held during the week.

Blood banks to work round the clock
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18
Following the death of a city woman, Pardeep Virk, yesterday in a road accident, the UT Administrator, Lt Gen J F R Jacob (retd), today ordered that all blood banks in government institutes must remain open 24 hours. Pardeep had died for want of blood transfusion.

SPORT

DAV-8 boys in final
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 18
Harpreet Kaur of Dev Samaj Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 21, and Pushpa of Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, helped their respective teams in reaching the finals on the penultimate day of the Chandigarh state junior basketball championship at Sports Complex, Sector 7, here today. In boys section, DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, scored a 41-32 victory over Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 33.

Results: girls — semi-finals: ISDSS-21 b GGSSS-18 42-5 (half-time 31-5): scorers- winners: Harpreet Kaur (Sr) 12, Shveta 10, Aman 7, Prabhjot 2; losers-Mohinder Kaur 4; BV-27 b GCG-42 34-25 (16-14): winners-Pushpa 16, Robina 5, Sonam 4; losers-Sarita 19, Jatinder 4, Raman 2; boys: semi-finals: DAVSSS-8 b GMSSS-33 41-32 (half-time 22-15): winners-Balraj 17, Rajinder and Vishal 9 each, Tanay and Arun 2 each; losers-Parminder 5, Haramardeep 8, Sunil 4, Ramanjeet 7 and Sunil Yadav 8.

The girls semi-final match between Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, and Government College for Girls, Sector 42, in progress at the Sports Complex, Sector 7, Chandigarh, on Friday.

Under-14 cricket

DAV Senior Secondary School Coaching Centre, Sector 8, would meet Panchkula Coaching Centre in the final of the MCA Summer under-14 cricket tournament, the semi-finals of which were played at PCA Stadium, SAS Nagar.

In the first semi-final played today, Mohali ‘A’ went down fighting to PCC, Panchkula, by four wickets, while Delhi team from Gyan Bharti Academy lost to DAVSSSCC-8 by four wickets.

(Results: first match: brief scores — Mohali ‘A’ — 190 all out (Sunny 34, Harmohinder 33, Sunny 24, Tarun 3 for 28, Saurabh 2 for 38, Sidhharth 2 for 31, Vineet 2 for 17); PCC,Pkl — 194 for 6 (Amit 50 n.o., Sukhwinder 37, Subhash 17, Gaurav Sachdeva 2 for 19); second match : GB, Delhi — 153 for 8 (Jaideep 46, Gaurav 28, Gaurav 4 for 29); DAVSSCC-8 — 157 for 6 (Sidhharth 50, Karamveer 21, Naman 2 for 42).

Chess tourney

Regional Sports Board, Mumbai, were leading with 14 points at the end of the fourth round of the All-India Civil Services chess tournament being played at Badminton Hall, Sector 42. RSB Calcutta was second with 12 points, and RSB Indore at 10.5 points. The other point position at end of the above round were, RSB Kanpur-10 pts; CS, Delhi-10 pts; MP state-9pts; RSB Chennai-8.5 pts; Rajasthan-8 pts; NCT Delhi-7.5 pts; Bihar-7 pts; Karnataka-7 pts; RSB, Faridabad-6.5pts; RSB Chandigarh-6.5 pts; RSB Hyderabad-6 pts; Punjab state-6 pts; Andhra Pradesh-5 pts; RSB Vadodara 4.5 pts and Chandigarh Administration-0 pt.

ADMINISTRATION

MC to look after streetlights
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh May 18
The Chandigarh Administration decided yesterday to hand over the maintenance of roads and streetlights of third phase sectors — Sector 48 to 56 — in the city to the Municipal Corporation taking them away from the Engineering Wing of the Administration.

The Chief Engineer, Chandigarh Administration, Mr Puranjit Singh, will be coordinating with the Chief Engineer, Municipal Corporation in this regard. In the past a certain dispute regarding the maintenance of services in the new sectors has been going on since the formation of the MC.

Earlier, Administration was supposed to maintain the roads and streetlights of these sectors. The MC had refused to take over the maintenance and the Administration had promised to maintain the services for five years. It has now been decided that the services will handed over to MC while the charges will paid by the Administration from the money collected from co-opertaive housing societies for development purposes, sources said.

Eyebrows raised over reinstatement of cops
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18
Even as the Chandigarh Administration’s decision to re-instate, suspended DSP, Devinder Singh and Inspector P.K. Dhawan has raised a few eye brows, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today asked the Administration about the status of the pending departmental inquiry against the same policemen.

The decision of the Chandigarh Administration has raised questions as an inquiry conducted by a former Legal Remembrancer, Mr Sanjeev Kumar has been ignored. It seems the officials were not even aware of the inquiry report and its contents which indicted the policemen for their alleged involvement in the infamous “missing files” case in which several files pertaining to cases of murder or major cases investigated by Devinder Singh and Dhawan, or their subordinates, had been missing from police stations in the city.

On April 28, 1999, the then LR Mr Sanjeev Kumar in his enquiry report had said, a Inspector Dhawan is the main culprit and responsible for the files. Despite untraced reports on the file , the same were not submitted to court and because of forgery committed in one of the files.

In his report the LR had further said one of the murder files was a forged document for which Dhawan and Devinder Singh was responsible. Interestingly, in the same report the LR had also held DSP South, S.C. Sagar for the loss of another murder file. Mr Sagar had retained the FIR register with himself even after his transfer from the division.

On the basis of the same a case was registered against the two under sections 467 and 468 of the IPC. In September 2000 the Police Department sent the case as untraced, however, the Joint Secretary, Home, Mr Ashok Sangwan, expressed reservations against it on record saying the case cannot be sent as untraced as it was serious matter.

In yesterday decision the Administration overlooked the LR’s report and also Mr Sangwan’s initial remarks against the untraced report. Interestingly, Mr Sangwan is still the JSH. Officially the Administration is taking a stance that the cops could not have been suspended endlessly and the inquiry carries on. Had the Administration been serious the inquiry would have been finished by now. At present the SDM, East, Mr Gyanesh Bharti is the inquiry officer while earlier the inquiry was being conducted by Ms Varsha Joshi. Both have made little or no headway. It is the status of this inquiry about which the MHA has now asked for. 

New vacuum sweeper promises cleaner roads
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18
Cleanliness in the city is likely to improve with the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) today formally inducting the tractor-trailed road vacuum sweeper (T-2100), a new machine to clean and sweep the roads of the city. It was flagged off by the city Mayor, Mr Raj Kumar Goyal, from the MC office building in Sector 17 in the presence of senior officials and councillors.

The machine, purchased at a cost of Rs 6.31 lakh from Guru Nanak Engineering Works, Samrala, is capable of sweeping major roads with speed as well as efficiency.

The company officials claim that the machine can clean a 2.5 km stretch of road in an hour. Its side rotary brush has extra access to reach and sweep far ends of the road along the footpaths. In addition to this, the far-reaching flexible suction pipe, fitted in the machine has the capacity to suck garbage from awkward areas. It can pick up almost everything from glass pieces, nails and even small stones.

The big brush will also be used to spill water and wash the swept area. “The machine is very effective in controlling dust pollution”, claimed the officials.

According to information available, the road vacuum sweeper will work for eight hours a day and six days of the week and to begin with it will be used on the V2, V3 and V4 roads of the city. It will work daily from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Fitted with the state-of-the-art technology, the machine has a horizontal as well as a rotary brush made of bristles of special steel for cleaning dust. A powerful suction nozzle near the horizontal brush is meant for dust suction, whereas another suction pipe is provided for sucking lose material.

The machine, with a dust storage tank, has a flexible hose with powerful suction nozzle for cleaning awkward areas like footpaths and plant roots. Fitted with an attachable tractor-trailer and two dustbins on each side for storage of stones and unwanted material lying on roads, the machine can also be used during night.

As regards the technical specifications, it has a water storage tank of 400 litre capacity as well as adjustable water sprinkling facility with water level indicator.