SAS Nagar, May 7
A new treatment, ultra rapid opiate detoxification (UROD), has been introduced here to help drug addicts regain control of their own lives.

Stating this at a press conference today, Dr Parmod Kumar, consultant neuropsychiatrist at the local Silver Oaks Hospital, said the procedure had perhaps been introduced for the first time in the country. Under the procedure, persons who were dependent on opiate drugs were made to go to sleep with anaesthesia (as though they were going to undergo surgery) and were given very large doses of opiate reversal drugs (antagonists or antidotes). The antagonists cause the immediate onset of opiate detoxification by removing opiate drugs from the sites in the brain where they produce their effects. As the patient is anaesthetised, very large doses could be administered to rapidly displace opiate drugs which greatly accelerated the detoxification process so that it lasted only a few hours.

Dr Parmod Kumar said under the procedure, introduced at Silver Oaks Hospital about a month ago, the symptoms of opiate withdrawal were not experienced by the patient as he was anaesthetised. When the patient was awakened from anaesthesia after a few hours the detoxification process was essentially complete. An after-care programme to address the psychological aspects of opiate dependence and maintenance treatment with naltrexone to prevent relapse to opiate abuse was then recommended for the patient.

He said the UROD was done in the cases of patients dependent on heroin (smack), opium, morphine, codeine containing cough syrups, bhukki, proxyvon capsules, norphine injections, fortwin and so forth. However, it was not effective against cocaine, alcohol, cannabis, nicotine or benzodiazepines, but it could benefit patients who mix opiates with these drugs. By removing opiate dependence, the UROD enabled such patients to focus on treating the remaining addictions through therapy.

Chandigarh, May 7
Roller hockey coach Baraldi Aldo from Italy came to city on an 18-day visit yesterday. He has been invited by the Roller Skating Federation of India and will train the national roller hockey team in both men and women sections.

The three-week-long camp is being held at KB DAV Centenary School, Sector 7.

Baraldi Aldo stressed on the need to put more emphasis on personalised coaching to a budding skater.

He said it is always prudent to pick the boy or girl at the age of three as it would help in making young skaters into a fine players in the times to come.

Aldo, who had come to Chandigarh for the second time, was of the view that Indians lacked the will to exceed at the world level.

But sometimes external factors do affect the player’s inclusion or exclusion from the team and this disturbs the rhythm and momentum of the team.

Aldo (63) had played roller hockey till late 60’s and then took to coaching thereafter. Based at Modena in Italy, Aldo has been coaching Italy’s national teams. He said in Italy there was a trend to begin early to skating.

Aldo liked his earlier stay in India and said it was nice that Roller Skating Federation of India (RSFI) was taking pains to invite coaches from abroad for giving tips to the players.

Aldo, who cannot speak English, said he could read that language to some extent, but now the interpreter Kanwal Nain Singh, an NRI, was here to help him.

Aldo said he would spend all these days with skaters, understanding their weak points and then over a period of time, trying to rectify the same.

Chandigarh, May 7
Composition of the UT Advisory Council has come in for criticism from different quarters and the critics have urged the Administrator to review and expand the body and include more representatives of the people.

Mr H.S. Hooda, President of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, and Mr N.K. Nanda, President of the District Bar Association, in a joint statement issued here today said both of them had been ignored in the council whereas in the past, presidents of both lawyers’ bodies had always been included in the advisory council. They urged the Administrator to “rectify this mistake”.

A meeting of the governing body of Samadhan, a pressure group for social justice, held here today under the presidentship of Mr R.P. Malhotra and demanded a review of the nominations made by the Administration so as to involve NGOs in the advisory council.

A statement issued by Samadhan said a majority in the list of the members nominated to the council, to advise the Chandigarh Administration on development issues and policy matters, were either the politicians belonging to major political parties of the city or the leaders of the bodies/unions affiliated to one political party or the other. The Administration had, however, also included in the list a few prominent personalities —about half a dozen — from other fields of life. If the idea behind constituting such a body was really to have advice in the formulation of people-friendly policies and to have an effective and right direction on development issues, this body shall prove to be a symbolic panel of prominent personalities of the city – just a platform for providing them a status of being a member of the advisory council of the city.

The statement opined that the group of politicians, about 80 per cent of the council members, would tend to take the things as per their own perspectives, according to the policy line of their respective parties.

The members belonging to the elite class i.e., sports-persons, educationists, artists and ex-servicemen could, however, contribute a lot for the overall welfare of society but will they be able to prevail upon the battery of politicians inducted in the council?

“NGOs, social bodies and pressure groups, those are selflessly striving hard with a sole motto of finding solutions to the day-to-day problems being faced by the public, have not been able to find any place in the council. Who else, other than these groups, can better feel the pulse of the people and know the crux of the problems? They in fact being well conversant with the problems at the grassroot level can advise the Administration in the right direction in forming the people-friendly and flawless policies,” the statement said.

Chandigarh building bylaws are at the centre stage of the problems at present. Sheer commercialisation in the name of relaxing policies had corrupted the official work channels. The Administration had also not tried to give a representation to an expert on real estate policies to advise the Administration on this vital issue so as to keep check on the prevailing ad-hocism and faulty/anti-people policies being implemented.

Nationalist Congress Party general secretary Shyam Lal Kanoujia also expressed similar sentiments saying the NCP, a national party, had been ignored in comparison to the BJP and Congress.

Mr Narender Singh, a social worker, sought dissolution of the council packed with politicians and not representing journalists, freedom fighters.