The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Seminar on stress management
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 9
Homo sapiens is the greatest species on the earth, for it can change its destiny, build it and enlighten itself. Thus all human beings have a right to health, education and economic self-sufficiency.

These views were expressed by world known doctors associated with the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, during a seminar on “Spirituality, Stress and Health”. This was organised by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development ( CRRID) in collaboration with the Himalayan institute.

The experts contended that the mission of the Himalayan institute, a non-profit organisation, is to promote health and healing using an integrated approach through combining traditional wisdom with modern medicine. The institute was set up in Dehra Dun by Dr Swami Rama to help people maintain good health and enhance their well-being in 1971. The emphasis is on creating self-awareness, self-reliance and self-training.

Dr Hanumanth S. Rao, honorary executive officer of the hospital trust, said each person aimed at a common goal — to attain ananda or absolute bliss. “It is thus that stress management has a pivotal role to play . All men who have gone down in the annals of history as men of virtue, have emphasised if one is free from stress, one can attain bliss. Stress management has to be done through physical, psychological, physiological , practical and spiritual dimensions .”

He said stress had to be treated as a disease , but counselling in this field was lacking. The duty of holistic system is to understand the aspects of a person. Modern psychology can help in trying to understand these four aspects of mind- mana (which creates doubts ), budhi ( gives the power of discrimination), ahankar ( ego which makes you think that you are unique) and chita (unconscious and sub-conscious mind where all unfulfilled desires live.)

Dr Prakash Keshaviah, said a holistic approach was required in dealing with stress-related and chronic diseases. He spoke on the combined therapy programmes being offered at Swasthyalaya, the institute hospital. “The combined therapy programme with dimensions on body, breath, senses, prana, emotions, mind and spirit through modalities like yoga, diet, breathing relaxation, meditation, aerobics, homoeopathy etc are offered here.”

Other speakers included Prof Sagar Sharma, psychologist at the institute and Dr Anil Singhal, neurologist. Earlier, a presentation on the life of Dr Rama was given with the facilities offered at the institute.

‘Medical services in India as good as abroad’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 9
Dr Kuldip Singh, general secretary of the Indian Association of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons, has challenged the popular perception in developing countries, including India, that medical facilities in Western countries, including the USA and the UK, are much better than those available in India.

“Ïndian medical services are as good as anywhere else in the world,”said Dr Kuldip Singh while talking to mediapersons on his return from a visit abroad. Dr Kuldip Singh delivered two lectures comparing results and complications of endoscopic surgery in developing and developed countries at the 8th World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery held in New York in March. In gall bladder surgery, which was one of the commonest operations being performed all over the world, the rate of complications was lower in the developing countries than in the West.

He quoted figures from different centres in India, Europe and the USA that the most dangerous complication like bile duct injury during laparoscopic gall bladder surgery was less with Indian surgeons than in the West. Although these figures had been taken from individual centres with single surgeon’s experience from India, they did not represent a large number of surgeons from India. Most of the surgeons in India did not present their bad results, so exact figures could not be presented.

To a question why the incidence of this complication was lower in India, Dr Kuldip Singh, who is one of the pioneer surgeons and has a long experience in this field, said that first single centres and individual surgeons, obviously over a long period of their experience, produced better results as compared to new and young surgeons. The figures from the West were clubbed together for all surgeons. But it had been seen that there had been very few reports in the literature concerning operating a large number of patients at individual centres in the western countries.

In India some surgeons had handled thousands of cases which made them perfect with the technique. Secondly, a majority of the surgeons in the Western countries junior or seniors, were performing this procedure compared to a very limited number of surgeons in developing countries like India. As more and more new surgeons were introduced in the field of laparoscopic surgery the risk of complications went up. There was also a difference in resident doctors being trained in the West and our country. Residents in the USA and European countries were probably at a disadvantage of not being trained in open surgery before taking up the laparoscopic procedure as compared to residents in our country who lacked a training in the laparoscopic technique during their training in surgery.

SPORTS

Tribune XI win cricket tourney
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 9
The Tribune XI team here today defeated The Indian Express XI by 48 runs in the final of the first Inter-Media Cricket Tournament.

The Tribune XI batted first. It had a bad start as the opening batsmen, failed to click. The middle order also collapsed and they were six wickets down for just 21 runs in only five overs. However, Navtej and Anjiv Jaswal hammered 38 and 35 runs, respectively, taking the score to a modest 145 runs all out in 23.2 overs. Navtej hit four boundaries, while Anjiv hit a six. Vijay Malik also chipped in with 14 runs. The extras were 45. For Indian Express XI, Rajesh Dewan took four wickets for 29 runs, followed by Vikrant Gupta and Kamleshar Singh, who bagged two wickets each by giving 15 and 24 runs, respectively.

In reply, The Indian Express XI were all out for 97 runs. The top scorers were Tamil Selevan and Kamleshar who scored 32 and 21 runs, respectively. The Tribune bowlers who wrecked the rivals were Vikas Ghai (5 for 24), Sanjay Kalia (3 for 15), Ajay Chauhan (2 for 21).

The man of the match award was given to Vikas Ghai. He also got the best bowler award. The man of the series award was given to Kamleshwar Singh, while the best batsman award went to Arijit Pal Singh.

The meet was organised by the Chandigarh Press Club and the prize distribution function will be held on April 15 on the Press Club lawns.

Volleyball meet

The Inter GE Football and Volleyball championship for CWE (AF) began here on Tuesday. The teams from GE (3 BRD), Chandigarh, GE (AF) Chandigarh, GE (AF) Halwara and GR (AF) Adampur are taking part in this meet which will conclude on Wednesday.

Veterans’ athletics

The first Major Swaran Singh memorial open veterans athletic meet will be held at Phase 8 track, SAS Nagar, on April 11and 12. The age groups of events are 40 to 80 for men’s section while 35 to 65 years for women. The events will be 100 m, 400 m, 1500m, 5 km walk, shot put, javelin throw and long jump.

ADMINISTRATION

Survey to ascertain number of toilet seats
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, April 9
The Public Health Department is undertaking a survey to ascertain the number of toilet seats on residential and commercial premises in the township. According to department officials, it has been noticed that in a number of cases, the number of toilet seats has been increased without permission. They said in a similar exercise undertaken by the department few months back, some people had voluntarily come forward to disclose the number of toilet seats.

An official of the department said the SAS Nagar Municipal Council had increased the fee from Rs 10 to Rs 15 per toilet seat, in case of residential premises, while the fee went up from Rs 25 to Rs 30, in case of commercial premises. But the consumers were reluctant to disclose the exact number of seats after the increase in the rates.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Department has refused to pay the electricity bills of the tubewell connections being maintained by it. After facing financial crisis, the local civic body had written to the public health department to foot the bills, running into lakhs. Earlier a decision of the civic body to allow its staff to take water and sewerage meter readings was turned down by the Local Government Department. An official of the council said the civic body was facing financial crisis and paying the salaries of the employees for the month of April would be impossible.

20 villages identified under IWDP
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 9
The district administration has identified 20 villages in the district for various soil and water conservation activities under the Integrated Watershed Development Project (IWDP).

This was disclosed at a district-level steering committee meeting for the IWDP held here today under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner, Ms Jyoti Arora. It was stated that construction of sub-surface dam or water points, water harvesting structures, roof rainwater tanks, etc. will be constructed in the villages of Silyon, Rasum Nathan, Bhur, Dhar Ka Khet, Dadwali, Gazan, Alipur, Khatauli, Kakrali, Khataula, Aprala , Kazampur, Syonthal, Samlehri, Seral, Jabal, Mandlai, Kudana, Thandoi and Chakli.

It was informed that Rs 1,030 lakh would be spent during the current financial year for taking up watersherd development activities. A sum of Rs 600 lakh would be spent on construction of roads and bridges.

While briefing about the project DFO, Kandi, Mr Balbir Singh Khokha, said that the Shivaliks, which lay in the foothills of the Himalayan range, had been identified as one of the eight most degraded rainfed agro-ecosystems of the country.

He said that despite an average rainfall of 1000 to 1500 mm, there were acute shortages of drinking water, fodder and firewood, caused by deforestation and soil erosion.

PUDA against misuse of parks
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, April 9
The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has asked the SAS Nagar civic body not to give permission for use of parks to hold public functions. The parks maintained by the horticulture wing of PUDA suffered during public function, said PUDA officials.

The issue was raised at a meeting between the officials of PUDA and the civic body. A nominal charge of around Rs 200 was charged for a day by the civic body to give permission for using a public park. The PUDA officials, led by the Additional Chief Administrator, Mr Yashvir Mahajan, sought that certain open spaces in the township could be earmarked for holding functions. They sought that the use of the community centres should be encouraged.

The Executive Officer of the civic body, Mr Harbhagwan Garg, said the PUDA officials were asked to reduce the rental of the community centres. A fee of Rs 5,000 was charged for a day. It was felt that permission for using the facility for a half day should also be given.