HEALTH

Bioinformatics centre at PGI
Chitleen K. Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has selected the PGI to be one of the six centres in the country for the setting up of a bioinformatics centre. The establishment of these centres is part of the ICMR's agenda to promote research in the field of biomedicine in the country.

The ICMR will be the central coordinating centre for these centres spread across the country. The other centres will come up at AIIMS, New Delhi, SGPGI, Lucknow, NICED, Kolkata, TRC, Chennai, and IRR, Mumbai.

The setting up of this state-of-the-art centre has started at the PGI here. The centre will be funded by the ICMR for the first five years after which the centre will be run independently by the PGI from its own resources.

Bioinformatics is a new area of science that uses a computational approach to answer biological questions. With the explosion of sequence and structural information, the field of bioinformatics is playing a vital role in the basic research on biomedical problems.

The major thrust of the kind of work that will be done at the centre will be the creation of a single genebank data base common to all these centres. Since all the centres will be connected with each other, exchange of all information collected or submitted at each centre will be possible through the central coordinating unit at the ICMR.

Bioinformatics basically uses the internet to submit and receive information. Therefore an internet facility will be the main infrastructure for this centre. The ICMR will provide Rs 8 lakh to each centre each year for the next five years for the internet connection. The local area networking (LAN) will be done by the centre for which each centre will be given Rs 2.5 lakh each year. Varied amounts will be given to each centre each year for the hardware and Rs 4 lakh will be given to each centre for the rest of the infrastructure. The total project is likely to cost Rs 2.5 crore spread over a period of five years.

The centre will also be employing one senior research officer or research officer who will be paid for the next five years by the ICMR. The centre will, however, employ two information scientists on its own to work at the centre. 

SPORTS

Milk Plant beat Milk Union in volleyball
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, April 11
Verka Milk Plant, SAS Nagar, outplayed Milk Union, Amritsar, 3-1 (24-26, 25-10, 25-15, 25-11) to enter the final of the Milkfed Punjab Inter-Union Volleyball Tournament played in the Milk Plant, SAS Nagar. Tomorrow the final will be held between Milk Union, Patiala, and Milk Plant, SAS Nagar.

In the other semi-final, Milk Union, SAS Nagar, defeated Milk Union, Bathinda, 3-0 (25-7, 25-6, 25-4).

Athletic meet

The second veterans Open Athletics meet in memory of Major Swaran Singh was inaugurated by Mr Kartar Singh, Director, Sports, Punjab, in the Phase 8, Mohali, track. A march-past involving nearly 400 schoolchildren and about 100 veteran players took part. Others who graced the occasion included Ajmer Singh, Jatinder Singh and Shamsher.

In the 100-metre (40-45 years), Harinder Kaur secured the first place, while Manmohan Kaur stood second. The other winners were Kulwant Kaur and Usha Kaul.

In men (40-45 years) for 5000 metres, Jatinder Singh was the first, and in 45-50 years, Shamsher Singh bagged the first place.

Cricket tourney

Punjab Civil Secretariat defeated Stadium XI by one wicket in the UT League Cricket Tournament played here today. In another match of the day, AYC XI beat Chandigarh Club by five wickets, while Maloya Cricket Club outclassed Surya XI by 32 runs.

ADMINISTRATION

IGP reviews law, order situation
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
The UT IGP, Mr Bhim Sain Bassi, reviewed the law and order situation in the city and the performance of the local police during the past three months during a special meeting held at Police Headquarters today. The DIG, Mr Ajay Kashyap, the SSP, Mr Parag Jain, the three SPs, all DSPs and SHOs attended the meeting.

During the meeting, the IG said that regular progress report about cases registered in various police stations be sent to the complainants by post to keep them apprised of the developments in his respective cases. The IG stressed that an FIR be registered for any offence, no matter how small or trivial it may seem.

While asking the beat staff to increase alertness on their part, Mr Bassi also stressed that watch be kept on the activities of known anti-social elements as well as on gangs known to be behind various thefts in the city.

He also asked cops to be very strict with traffic violators and directed all the DSPs and the SHOs to challan violators whenever they see traffic rules being broken.

The DIG also told the gathering that the local police would be acquiring four poloroid cameras to be used where one or two photographs about crime incidents are wanted urgently.

Paramhans is SE (Operations)
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
Mr Paramhans Singh, Superintending Engineer , attached with the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), is all set to be the new SE (Operations), in Chandigarh Administration. His name was finally cleared by the UT Administrator, Lieut Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), today.

This means two senior power enginneers, Mr J.N. Sachdeva and Mr Ajit Singh Gulati, will be going back to their parent cadre of Punjab. Mr Sachdeva has been appointed as Chief Engineer, Amritsar, while Mr Gulati goes as Director, Ranjit Sagar Dam. The PSEB, when it sent a panel of names, included Mr Gulati’s name. He, however, declined to continue in Chandigarh and wanted to go back. 

Allocation for water drainage deferred
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
The Water and Sewerage Committee of the Municipal Corporation here today deferred allocation of Rs 18.57 lakh for a storm water drainage along Sukhna Lake and Golf Course.

The decision was taken after a visit of the committee to the site in the leadership of its chairman, Mr Kuldeep Singh.

The approval of the plan had been hanging fire for the past two meetings of the Finance and Contract Committee.

The committee members decided to allocate money initially for only small projects considering a tight budget.

Priority of allocation would be on the basis of a number of people getting affected from a work, Mr Singh said.