The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Breast-feed scores over formula-feed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24
Top dieticians and paediatricians spoke against the idea of giving commercial cereals and formula feed to infants and emphasised on breast milk in the first six months of an infant’s life followed strictly by home-made diet, including khichdi or some homemade cereal for the child.

If the mother was a busy working woman, she could always prepare something in the morning and keep it in fridge instead of giving the child expensive commercial tinned food, said PGI Paediatrics Head, Prof Lata Kumar in an answer to a questions by one of the audience during the CME on Paediatric Nutrition yesterday at the Tagore Theatre.

Encouraging exclusive breast feeding she said that besides fulfilling an infant's nutritional and emotional needs, breast fed babies are also protected towards allergies, are more healthy both mentally and physically.

The GMCH Paediatrics Head, Prof Veena Parmar, said developing good food habits at home was important. ‘‘Avoid fast food and aerated cold drinks which supplement the calories but are nutritionally deficient,’’ she said.

Discussing the modern day adolescent problems like anorexia nervosa and bullemia, the GMCH Psychiatry Head, Prof BS Chavan, said that these problems were results of conflicts in the family. ‘‘Besides the fact that media is promoting the myth that thinness is associated with beauty, this makes these girls diet so feverishly that they have to be admitted to a hospital, ’’ he said.

Inaugurated by a former PGI Director, Prof BNS Walia, the CME was jointly organised by the GMCH Dietetics and the Paediatrics Department to address nutritional problems in infants and adolescents. The GMCH Director Principal, Prof SBS Mann, also released a souvenir on this occasion.

The panel of specialists also emphasised for a normal diet even during illness. ‘‘Even during fever, a child should be given good quality proteins and carbohydrate and a normal diet is necessary for all childhood illnesses like diarrhoea, common cold, fever and jaundice,’’ they said.

Earlier, during the scientific deliberations, speaking on juvenile diabetes management strategies, PGI Associate Professor, Dr R. Murlidhara, Endocrinology Department, said that keeping in mind the restrictions on diet, parents should plan the meals imaginatively for a diabetic child. ‘‘Rather than following a rigid menu pattern, make diet more acceptable and palatable to the child,’’ he advised.

The Dietetics Department Head, Mrs Manju Mathur, emphasised on the need to set healthy eating standards at home so that children avoid taking fast food like burgers and hot dogs which are deficient in micronutrient and fibre. ‘‘An adolescents meal should be balanced with plenty of salads, vegetables, fruits and juices. Adolescence is a unique period with tremendous physical, emotional and mental changes taking place. And 10 to 20 per cent of the children and teenagers, who are obese in this period, have a likelihood of growing into obese adults as number of fat cells once formed cannot be reduced,’’ she said. .

Speaking on Diet and Dental Health, a PGI Additional Professor, Dr K. Gauba, Oral Health Department, said carbohydrate-rich diet and table sugar were the most incriminating substances in promoting dental caries. ‘‘Whenever sugar is consumed, plaque pH drops below the critical level leading to demineralisation of tooth enamel. Sugar, in whatever form, should not be taken more than thrice in a day,’’ he said.

Dr Shanto Ghosh, paediatric surgeon and former Head, Paediatrics Department, Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, said one third of the babies born in the country were of low birth weight weighing less than 2.5 kg at birth’’. Poor maternal nutrition, anemia and repeated pregnancies were the causes for this,’’ she said.

Speaking on colic disease when the child had a permanent intolerance to ingested gluten, a protein present in wheat, which results in inflammatory damage to the small intestinal mucosa, the GMCH Medicine Head, Dr Atul Sachdev, said treatment for the disorder was life long and involved avoiding dietary gluten. ‘‘Gluten-free diets are available and with appropriate professional instructions and family support, the disease can be managed,’’ he said

Dr Srikant Basu and Mrs Sudhas Khurana also highlighted the practical aspects of dietary management. A nutrition quiz was conducted by Dr JS Goraya and Ms Madhu Arora.

SPORTS

SAI hostel lift soccer trophy
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, September 24
SAI sports hostel, Sector 18, clinched the inaugural Chandigarh sub-junior girls football championship for Guru Teg Bahadur trophy, when they overpowered Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, by 4-0 in the finals held here today at Football Stadium, sector 17. Ms Satwant Kaur Sandhu, Cabinet Minister, Punjab was the chief guest on the occasion.

In the match played today, the SAI eves dominated right from the beginning and kept pressure mounting on the GMSSS-22 girls. The first goal was scored by Prakash Chaudhary in 10th minute, second by Suman in 14th minute, third by Raj Rani in 19th minute and in dying minutes, Prakash Chaudhary struck again and took the lead to 4-0, which was maintained till the end.

Three players, Prakash Chaudhary of SAI girls hostel-18, Manpreet Kaur of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, and Gurpreet Kaur of GTB, Public school, Sector 15, were adjudged best players of the tournament.

Rapid chess tourney

The first Chandigarh rapid chess championship-2001 for under-14 and under-12 in both boys and girls sections concluded this evening, which served as the basis for the selection of UT chess team in the age groups for the National rapid chess championship to be held at Chandigarh next month.

The teams are: under-14: Boys — Mayanak Aggarwal (St Kabir-26) 1, Amit Sethi (DCMSS-7, PKL)2. Girls — Preeti (St Xavier’s-44)1, Shweta (GMSSS-37) 2. under-12: Boys — Anmol Razdan (Tender Heart-33) 1, Ravi Gupta (St Xavier’s-44) 2. Girls — Jaya Bhatia (Tender Heart-33) 1. Mr Vipnesh Bhardwaj secretary of the Chandigarh Chess Association said they would still consider entries as donor entries for deserving players.

Handball championship

DAV Club ‘B’ team, Sector 8, and coaching centre, Sector 42, defeated CC-21 and GMSSS club-19 by 33-29 and 16-9, respectively, in the 15th UT junior state handball championship which began here today at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8.

Inter-school sports meet

The results of UT Inter-school sports meet in hockey, badminton, table tennis, ball badminton and lawn tennis, being played here at different venues of the city.

Hockey: U-17: DAVSSS-8b GMHS-442-0; U-15: SGGSSS-35 3-0.

Yoga: GHS-25 1, SPS-41 2, GHS-26 3.

Ball Badminton: U-14: MRSSS-27 b GMHS-41 29-8,29-0; GMSSS-37b GMHS-28 29-12,29-15; SGHPS-40b GMHS-3629-18,29-18. U-17: SGHPS-40 b GMSSS-2129-07, 29-7; SPS-41 b MMS-21 29-16, 29-19. u-19: GMSSS-19 b GSSS-27 29-8,29-19; GSSS-38(w) b SGGSSS-35 29-16, 29-20.

Badminton; U-14: SGHPS-38b St Stephen’s-45 3-0; GMSSS-16 b SNSSMS-22 3-0; MRSSS-27b GMSSS-37:3-0; SPS-41 b GMSSS-37 3-0. U-17: DAVSSS-8 b GMHS-41 3-0; MRASSS-27 b GMSSS-23 3-0. U-19: GMSSS-35 b MRSSS-27 3-0; DAVSSS-8b GMSSS-37 3-0; GNKSSS-30 b GSSS-27 3-0.

Tennis: DAVPS-8 b GMSSS-16 2-0.

Table Tennis: U-14: Shishu Niketan-22 b Dutt Vishsesh-26 3-0; MRASSS-27 b GMSSS-19 3-0; SN-22 b BV-27 3-0; MMHS-21 bNPS-18 3-0;

U-10-7; MMHS-21b BV-27 3-0; u-14: MRASSS-27 b GMSSS-20 3-1

Kabaddi championship

Haripur village in boys section and GSSS, Jalauli, in girls section bagged the respective titles in the sixth senior kabaddi championship being played at Government senior Secondary school, Barwala near here. Mr Pardeep Chaudhary, Chairman CONFED, gave away the prizes. In this meet, 25 men teams and five women teams took part. The District Panchkula kabaddi team will also be selected for the Haryana state kabaddi championship to be held at Sonepat from September 28.

Children’s golf begins today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24
More than 100 golfers from all over the country up to the age of 17 will take part in the Chandigarh Open Junior/Sub-junior Golf Tournament to be played at the Chandigarh Golf Club from September 25 to 28.

Category A will be from 15 to 17 years, category B from 13 to 14, category C from 11 to 12 and category D below 10 years. In the 13 to 17 age group competitors will carry their own golf bag or use trolley. This tournament is part of the annual golf calendar of the club and is categorised by the IGU.

India Junior No 1 Harvinder Gupta will lead the challenge. Besides him, there are a large number of good golfers from Delhi, Pune and Chennai taking part in the tournament.

The Chandigarh Golf Club is humming with activity. Golfers and their parents are going around the course for practice and last-minute instructions.

The course has been upgraded recently with two new greens coming up, thus making the course more challenging. Some additional equipment has been procured in preparation for the National Games which will be held from November 19 at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

In the A, B and C categories the golfers will play for four days there will be a cut applied after the second day. Category-D ( under 10 years) golfer will play only 54 holes for three days from September 26 to 28

The prize distribution will be held on September 28 at 4.30 p.m.

Hockey trainees play football!

The UT sub-junior girls football meet, which concluded today at Football Stadium, Sector 17, saw eves training in hockey from the Sports Authority of India, Sector 18 sports training centre, taking part in this meet.

The sports experts opined that the hockey trainees were part of a special STC scheme and were admitted by the SAI corporate office, Delhi to the centre on the basis of their past achievements in hockey. They were supposed to perform and play at their optimum and were being provided given free lodging, kit, expert training, by SAI coaches.

Such a move could jeopardise their career by making them play in official matches other than hockey. In case of any injury during the meet, who would have been held responsible — SAI or Chandigarh Football Association, which hosted the meet ? It may be recalled that on August 29, National Sports Day, few trainees in basketball, athletics, hockey and volleyball of STC-18 had participated in an exhibition match played between the SAI eves and boys from the Chandigarh Football Academy. None of the senior SAI officials or of CFA was available for their comments.

ADMINISTRATION

UT fails to send birth and death records
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24
The office of Registrar of Births and Deaths, UT Administration, has failed to send the annual record for past five years to the Government of India. As per the rules and regulations, it is mandatory for the department to send these records on a yearly basis to the Registrar General, Census, Union Government.

The last time the department had send its annual record was in1995.

When contacted the Director, Health Services, Dr Rameshwar Chander, accepted the fact and said that the department had failed to send these records to the Center and said the reason for the lapse was shortage of staff. ‘‘There are only four persons to deal with a large number of births and death cases in the UT, ’’ he said.

Sources, however, said otherwise. They said that it was lack of supervision and monitoring which was the core problem for not sending the vital records to the Government of India.

It may be mentioned that office of Registrar of Births and Deaths has been in the news for having issued fake certificates and manipulating the office record of many individuals. Cases have come to notice of the UT Health Department when the birth dates of individuals have been changed on the basis of affidavits from the respondents.

Meanwhile, the DHS, said that the department was in the process of preparing records and the annual record for 1996 was almost ready to be dispatched to the Union Government. ‘‘Efforts are on to ensure that all other records till date are also prepared and sent as early as possible,’’ he added.

Civic body up in arms against Brar’s posting
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, September 24
The ruling group of the local civic body is heading for a major showdown with the government over the issue of the posting of Mr K.S. Brar, Executive Officer of Gidderbaha civic body, here. Earlier, Mr Brar remained posted as Executive Officer of the local civic body for over four years before being transferred to Gidderbaha.

Apprehending the trouble ahead, the general house had in its last meeting passed an agenda opposing the posting of Mr Brar in place of Mr Bhagwan Dass Garg, the present EO of the civic body. The councillors alleged that Mr Brar would deteriorate the atmosphere in the municipal council.

Getting a whiff of the former Executive Officer reportedly getting orders from the Chief Minister for his transfer back to the local civic body, the members of the ruling group met the Chief Minister but failed to get any encouraging response from him. Sources in the government said the Chief Minister was not willing to help the councillors due to certain political compulsions. Now the councillors were seriously thinking of taking the legal recourse. For the moment, the councillors have got a reprieve as the Local Government Minister is said to have asked the Principal Secretary, Local Government, not to pass any transfer orders without his knowledge.

The civic body had already moved a case in the court of the Subdivisional Magistrate under the Punjab Public Premises Act against the former EO for not vacating the official accommodation in the municipal complex here for over five months. The councillors said Mr Brar was not vacating the house as he was planning to come back. The Local Government Department on the recommendation of the local civic body had ordered recovery on account of the house rent from the official.

Though the civic body had levied a penalty of Rs 1.44 lakh at a rate of Rs 26,500 per month on Mr Brar for overstaying in the official accommodation, the penalty has been reduced to around Rs 52,000 after waiving off the rent for two months period.

The penalty had to be deducted from the salary of the Executive Officer. Citing non-recovery of the penalty, the civic body has urged the Principal Secretary to take disciplinary action against Mr Brar. However, Mr Brar was not available for comments.