HEALTH

Doctors worried over new Act
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 10
The general body meeting of the local unit of the Indian Medical Association was held here yesterday. The IMAs of the neighbouring cities of Khanna, Doraha and Raikot also participated in the meeting.

Dr Gursharan Singh, president, IMA, Ludhiana, in a press note said meeting was called to take review of the situation arising out of the Nursing Home Registration Act. Various provisions of the proposed bill were read out to the general house and the members of the IMA outrightly rejected it. They ridiculed the Health Minister, who they said, being a doctor, knew that all the provisions already existed but were not being implemented.

The members said they were not afraid of the provisions, but wanted them to be thoroughly implemented. The government has been unable to revive the defunct Punjab Medical Council, which was supposed to govern the doctors, they said.

The members said introduction of the Act will increase interference into the day-to-day activities of the doctors. It was like an introduction of the Inspector rule on doctors, they added.

The president said on the one hand the government was promoting privatisation, but on the other it was trying to finish the flourishing private sector. The IMA advised the government to check the menace of quacks rather than catching the qualified doctors. It said introduction of the Act would lead to bribing the officer concerned as presently most of the chemists were doing.

Dr Gursharan Singh said they had been planning to meet political leaders for snapping the bill. He said they will gherao the Health Minister if their demand was not accepted. They would also resort to a state-wide strike for a day in support of their demand.

The members stressed the unity among the doctors. They alleged that there was an acute shortage of the qualified staff as the Punjab Government was not promoting new para-medical and nursing colleges.

The IMA took strong exception to the rising trend of assault on doctors. They threatened that if appropriate action was not taken against the guilty, they will close their establishments and paralyse the health services. The doctors also devised their own plan to tackle this menace by dividing the city into three zones, each being headed by one vice-president.

SPORTS

Pranav, Maninder bag badminton titles
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, September 10
Pranav Chopra, a student of DAV Public School, registered an easy win over Jogeet Singh of Khanna and bagged the boys’ singles title (under-10) in the Ludhiana District Badminton Championship being held here at the Shastri Hall, Guru Nanak Stadium.

Pranav beat Jogeet in straight sets, 7-1, 7-0, 7-1, while in the girls’ singles (under-16) final, Maninder Kaur defeated Sandip, 7-3, 8-7, 7-4, to bag the title.

Boys singles (under-10) (semifinal): Pranav Chopra b Antarpreet Singh, 7-2, 7-2, 7-3; Jogeet Singh b Rahul Chhabra, 7-0, 7-1, 7-2. Other matches: Ramneek Sharma b Harinder Singh, 7-2, 7-0, 7-1; Gurbax Singh b Kanwaldeep, 5-7, 8-6, 7-1, 7-4; Raj Kumar b Param Parkash, 7-1, 7-0, 7-1; Punjab Masih b Ravinder Singh, 7-1, 7-1, 7-1.

Boys singles (under-19) semifinal: Dilpreet Singh b Amarjot Singh, 7-3, 7-2, 7-1; Ramnik Sharma b Punjab Masih, 7-4, 7-1, 4-7, 7-1.

Men singles, quarterfinal: Sunil Sekhri b Ajitpal, 7-3, 7-3, 7-1; Lakhvinder Singh b Harish Kumar, 7-4, 7-4, 7-3; Tajinder Singh b Ranbir Singh, 7-0, 7-3, 7-3; Dilpreet Singh b Ramnik Sharma, 1-7, 7-0, 7-4, 7-2.

Women singles (semifinal): Nazma Parveen b Ramandeep Kaur, 7-4, 7-2, 7-2; Ashwinder Kaur b Parvinder Kaur, 7-3, 7-4, 7-3.

Boys doubles (under-16) Semifinal: Gurbax and Raj Kumar b Kanwar Deep and Diljot, 7-3, 7-0, 7-3; Ramnik and Pranav b Punjab Masih and Sukhpreet, 7-3, 7-2, 7-3.

Boys doubles (under-19) Semi final: Dilpreet and Ramnik b Pawaneet and Nikhil, 7-1, 7-0, 7-0; Raj Kuamr and Gurbax b Punjab Masih and Amarjot, 7-5, 7-0, 7-1.

Girls singles (under-16) Semi final: Sandip b Pallavi, 7-4, 7-0, 7-3; Maninder b Megha, 7-1, 7-1, 7-0.

Final: Maninder Kaur b Sandip, 7-3, 8-7, 7-4.

Girls’ doubles (under-16) semifinal: Sandip and Megha b Ramandeep and Manpreet, 7-5, 7-3, 7-2; Shifali and Maninder b Mandeep & Pallavi, 8-6, 8-6, 2-7, 8-6.

Women doubles (semifinal): Nazma Parveen and Balreet b Sandip and Megha, 7-1, 7-0, 7-2; Harneet and Mandip Mangat b Ashrinder and Ramandeep, 7-3, 7-5, 7-4.

Veteran doubles (quarterfinal): M.P.S. Grewal and K. Parbhakar b Anand Jain and Balwinder, 7-0, 7-1, 7-3; Jagdeep and Sushil Dhanda b N.R. Gupta and K.K. Thapar, 7-0, 7-2, 8-6, 7-4; M.P. Singh and Sunil b Sukhwinder and Vinod Jain, 8-6, 7-5, 1-7, 6-8, 8-6. Semifinal: M.P.S. Grewal and K. Parbhakar b Jagdeep and Sushil Dhanda, 7-0, 7-1, 7-0; Jai Parkash and Amarjeet b M.P. Singh and Sunil, 7-4, 7-3, 3-7, 7-5.

Boys singles (under-10) final: Pranav Chopra b Jogeet Singh, 7-1, 7-0, 7-1.

Bridge championship concludes
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, September 10
After a gruelling exercise, Jain’s, a team from Meerut emerged winners in ‘Four Duplicates’ to lift the Swiss Trophy in the National Open Bridge Championship which concluded at the Sutlej Club here today.

On the first 14 boards, Jain’s consisting of M.L. Jain, R.M. Gupta, R.B. Goyal and B Roy picked up six international match points (IMPs), with score reading 43-37 in their favour. The second segment saw them add another 16 IMPs to their tally (32-16) to end victorious by 22 IMPs.

The team of Y. Kamalakar Rao, president of the Bridge Federation Of India , which comprised of Rao, K. Suryanaryanan, Inder Pal Singh, B. Rama Mohan Rao and C. Ashok Reddy finished runners-up.

The teams that followed were Pal’s of Delhi, Jadoun of Kanpur, Aligarh Blues, ACGW of Delhi, Sidhu’s of Chandigarh and Boat Club House of Nainital.

In the Pairs event, J.S. Behal and G.C. Goyal of Patiala secured 125.45 match points to win the title. The other seven pairs who got position in the championship were: S. Lahiri and B. Batra of Delhi 122.50 points, A Narang and R K Gupta of Delhi 120.75 points, K. Rai and K.V. Sikand of Chandigarh 120.05 points, Sudhir Aggarwal and R. Chakarvarty of Delhi 116.95 points, B.P. Singh and C.P. Aggarwal of Nainital 116.55 points, A. Haque and R.K. Shukla 114.55 points, D.K. Tiwari and P.C. Gupta of Delhi 113.45 points.

Mr Y. Kamalakar Rao later gave away the prizes to the winners. Mr A.K. Kundra of the Punjab State Electricity Board presided over the prize distribution function.