The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

Training programme for UT doctors
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh , May 21
The UT Administration launched the training programme for its medical officers to orient them to fight tuberculosis in Chandigarh and its periphery. The third phase of the training programme was inaugurated by the Director, Health Services, Dr Rameshwar Chander, here today.

According to Dr B.D. Chugh, TB Officer, during the course the doctors will be informed about the various aspects of the World Health Organisation-Government of India-funded Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP). Under the RNTCP, it is ensured that the patients receive the medicines under the supervision of a directly observed treatment (DOTS) provider.

In Chandigarh, out of the noted 2,378 patients in 1999-2000, as many as 403 are sputum positive. Incidentally, each sputum positive can further infect 10 to 15 persons every year. Although the short-course chemotherapy regimen is being practised in the city for the past four years under the National TB Control Programme, it has been observed that only 35 per cent of the patients actually complete the treatment and 30 per cent are cured. The rest develop even more complicated multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and continue to be the major cause of spreading the disease.

The key component of the RNTCP is DOTS which will help the patients to receive their drugs at their convenience and ensure compliance of the course. Dr Chugh said that after examining the sputum of a suspected case, treatment would be provided by trained DOTS personnel through 75 treatment centres spread all over the city.

The UT Administration has received funds for preliminary activities which include training of all health personnel, including medical officers, laboratory technicians, staff nurses, pharmacists, paramedical supervisors and social workers.

According to Dr Chugh, the Administration will be able to complete the necessary preparatory activities to start DOTS by June, 2001.

Nurses Week ends
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, May 21
The week-long celebrations to observe the Nurses Week at the Mata Sahib Kaur Institute of General Nursing and Midwifery concluded here yesterday. During the week, a debate on ‘‘Nurses are always united against violence” was also organised.

Mr Inderjit Singh Jeera, a former minister of state for Health and Family Welfare, presided over the concluding function and distributed prizes to winners of various competitions held during the week. The chief guest, Ms Rajinder Dhadha, Nursing Superintendent, General Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh, spoke about the duties of nurses and advised student-nurses to develop skills required for giving comprehensive nursing services.

Ms Jaswinder Kaur Walia, Director of the institute, and Ms A.K. Ahluwalia were also present at the function.

SPORTS

Isha, Taskeen for title clash
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 21
Isha Toor will meet Taskeen Bains in girls section while Paras Thakur will clash with Sanam K Singh in boys section (under-14 category) in the finals of the Chandigarh State Lawn Tennis Championship being played at CLTA, Sector 10. Chattwinder Singh (under-18 category) sailed into the final alongwith Jitin Bishnoi but went down fighting to spirited Aakash Sharma in three-set thriller in a semi-final tie in men singles. Aakash will now face Gurvinder Singh in tomorrow’s final. Satvika Saboo and Mallika Malhotra will cross swords with each other in the final of girls under-18 category.

The finals will be played tomorrow at 8.30 am.

Results — semifinals: under-14 (boys) Paras Thakur b Kinshuk Sharma 6-2, 6-3; Sanam K Singh b Pritam Singh 6-4, 6-4; (girls): Isha Toor b Inayat Khosla 6-0, 6-1; Taskeen Bains b Alipt Sandhu 6-3, 6-0.

Under-18 (boys): Jitin Bishnoi b Harneet Singh 4-6, 6-0, 7-5; Chattwinder Singh b Gurdit Singh 6-1, 6-1; (girls): Satvika Saboo b Isha Toor 6-2, 6-4; Mallika Malhotra b Gungeet Bains 6-1, 6-0.

Men’s singles: Gurvinder Singh b Robin Kumar 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Aakash Sharma b Chattwinder Singh 0-6, 7-6(7-5), 6-3.

Cricket tourney
Mohali gained an early 89-run led at the close of the first day of the two-day PCA inter-district cricket pre-season under-16 section tournament played here today at the PCA stadium, SAS Nagar. After winning the toss, Mansa elected to bat first but lost their openers when the score was just 24. Mansa succumbed to the fine bowling of Mohali team and was bundled out for 97 runs only.

In reply, Mohali made a good beginning and it were Harpreet Singh, Mukesh and Sunny Sohal, who led the team to a score of 186 runs.

Brief scores: Mansa: 97 all out in 51 overs (Ravi 17, Gaganpreet 13, Gagandeep Singh 3 for 23, Simrandeep Singh 3 for 13, Ashutosh Pandit 3 for 28); Mohali: 186 runs for four wickets in 38 overs (Sunny Sohal 37, Gauaravjeet 23, Mukesh 48, Harpreet 60 n.o.).

Chess meet
S.S. Soman and Hari Om Sharma surged ahead in the All-India Civil Services Chess Tournament being played here at the Badminton Hall, Sector 42.

The other winners in today’s round included: Manish Kumar, Satya Naraina, R.K. Mishra, JP Srivastava, S.K. Sinha, S. Bhattachrya, G.N. Abhey, S.K. Rathore, E. Joseph, Vinod Bhagwat, Milind Gawade, J.M. Baisakh, B. K. Chaurasiya, G. V. R. Murali, A. K. Lalayan, M. Muthuman, P.B. Bhillare, R.D.H. Tyagi, Subhash, R. S. Mishra, Manoj Kumar, Satyanarayana, Kapil Saxena, R.K. Duhan, A.K. Roy, A.K. Jagadesh, M.M. Saxena, Kartik, M.J. Babu,V. Hariharan, M.S. Santiwal, Dr D.D. Dandel, Prem Babu, K. Sirajjuddin, Manmohan Singh, Kaleenuddin, Mahendra Arora, Ajay Bafna, Venkatashwara Rao, Sailaja, Harinder Pal, K.G. Srinivas, Bhavnesh Taneja, Kramesha, K. Deepak, P.S. Chawla and Jitender Batra.

Office-bearers
The Punjab Adventure Club has decided to have Mr Sohan Lal and Mr P.S. Chhabra as patron and adviser respectively of the club. At its election meeting, the club members decided to work for the amelioration of the downtrodden people in society and also help them financially in many spheres. The following were chosen as new office-bearers of the club: patron — Sohan Lal; advisor — Pritam Singh Chhabra; Hony President — Surmukh Singh; Vice-Presidents — Harichand, Ajit Singh, Gulshan Lal and Ajit Saini; Hony Secretary — Lokesh Kumar; and Joint Secretaries — Bhag Singh and Narinder Chaudhary.

Chess championship from May 26
The Chandigarh Chess Association will hold the 13th Chandigarh Chess Championship-2001 from May 26 to 29 at the Badminton Hall (Chess centre), Sector 42.This was stated by Mr Vipnesh Bhardwaj, secretary of the association. He said a team of four players to represent Chandigarh in the 39th National ‘B’ Chess Championship-2001 to be held at Nagpur from June 30 to July 14, 2001 will also be selected during this meet. Entries close with Mr Karma Angdui, 1341-B, Sector 41-B,Chandigarh (Phone-629509).

BSNL cell service for region next year
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 21
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would introduce cellular telephone service in Punjab and Chandigarh by early 2002. The nigam would provide the service with an attractive tariff structure and the unique feature would be the provision of all-India roaming facility at very low rates. For the first phase, which would have more than one lakh connections, tenders have already been called and are being evaluated.

This information was given by Mr S.C. Choudhary, Chief General Manager, Telecom, Punjab Circle, Chandigarh at a press conference here today. On the much awaited WILL (wireless-in-local-loop) telephone service in the city by July this year, he said nearly 2200 fixed telephones and 700 mobile handsets would be made available in the first phase of the scheme.

Mr Choudhary said BSNL was working out a scheme through which handsets, costing nearly Rs 10,000, would be provided by the nigam itself and would be insured so that the consumers do not have to pay this heavy initial amount to obtain a WILL set. This would considerably bring down the entry barrier and make the service available to the common man, he added.

The CGMT announced that an additional trunk automatic exchange (TAX) was being set up at Jalandhar which would be the first station in the state to have two TAX exchanges. This, he said, would considerably improve STD service. About laying of optical fibre cables (OFC), Mr Choudhary said nearly 1600 km of OFC had been laid in Punjab last year and it was proposed that another 1000 kms of OFC would be laid in 2001-02. To further take care of the increased load on STD lines, the nigam had plans to put additional 82,000 trunk lines in the state to the existing capacity of 1,20,000 lines to expand the STD network, he told reporters here.

The Punjab Telecom Circle would provide 4.6 new telephone connections during the current fiscal as against 2.5 lakh connections provided in the last fiscal. He said that prepaid India telecom cards had been introduced in eight telecom district headquarters. These services would be further extended to Ferozepore and Bathinda before June-end this year, he said.