HEALTH

250 units of blood collected
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26
More than 250 units of blood were collected at the second camp in a series of blood donation camps organised by the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association at the PGI here yesterday.

Inaugurated by Prof Gurjeevan Grewal, Head, Department of Heamatology, PGI, the camp was conducted by a team of doctors/technicians headed by Prof S.K. Agnihotri, Head, Department of Blood Transfusion, PGI. Dr J.G. Jolly, patron of the association, appreciated the donors and asked them to spread the message of voluntary blood donation for the benefit of the sick patients.

SPORTS

Priyanka Mehta qualifies
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26
Priyanka Mehta easily quelled the challenge of Khusleen Bains 6-3, 6-2 to qualify for the main draw of the ITF Women’s Circuit Tennis Tournament here today.

Tomorrow in the main draw top seeded Sonal Phadke will take on Reddhina Parekh in her opening match. Reddhina Parekh today qualified beating Naina Karsolia 7-5, 6-3.

Today’s results: Singles: Priyanka Mehta b Khushleen Bains 6-3, 6-2; Sandra Sasidharan b Ragini Vimal 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Iciri Rai b Nishita Yadav 6-0, 6-0; Monika Goel b Parul Goswami 6-3, 7-5; Priyanka Parekh b Nivedita Venkatesh 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Sharanya Pattabi b Soma Benerjee 6-4, 6-1; Reddhina Parekh b Naina Karsolia 7-5, 6-3; Bharathy Parthasarthy b Pallavi Sharma 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles: Deepa Chakrabarthy and Parul Goswami b Harpreet Gill and Nishita Yadav 4-0, 4-2.

ADMINISTRATION

Workshop to make police gender sensitive
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26
The Chandigarh Police is setting up a core group to deal with issues related to crime against women. Stating this here today, the UT DIG, Mr Ajay Kashyap, added that a workshop on “Training of trainers on gender sensitisation” for police personnel is being organised in this regard.

Mr Kashyap said 20 participants have been selected for the five-day programme, which begins at Timber Trail Resort, near Parwanoo, tomorrow. The participants include instructors from the Recruit Training College, officers from the Women and Child Support Unit and local police stations.

The workshop is being organised in association with the Gender Training Institute (GTI), New Delhi. The faculty would consist of experts from Delhi and Chandigarh.

The DIG said the gender sensitisation training would be followed up every four months and changes in the curriculum would be made if and as required.

Speaking on the occasion, the Director of GTI, Dr Ranjana Kumari, emphasised on the need to sensitise police personnel to deal with crime against women. She said a new methodology was required to deal with such issues for which such workshops were required.

Dr Ranjana said the attitude of police personnel, while dealing with crime situation, should be such that the dignity of the victim was not lowered. She added that the need of the hour was to evolve a gender-sensitive police force.

Highlighting the training programme, Dr Madhumita Sarkar said the methodology adopted included active participation by all those attending the programme through case studies, story telling, screening films and discussions. The day would begin at 6 am and continue till the day’s scheduled activities are completed. Every participant would be required to make a presentation on the final day of the programme.

Delay in decision causes loss to PGI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26
As the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, prolongs his decision on granting approval to the various terms and conditions to be laid down for tendering of shops at PGI, the PGI has started losing precious revenue with at least two shops having been given extension.

Both these shops have reached the end of their licence period and one of these has even crossed the five-year extendible limit and then been given an extension. The shopkeepers, both of chemist shops, too are on the tenterhooks on their fate after the extension comes to an end and the new conditions to be laid down before they are eligible to bid again.

Sources in the PGI state that the ministry had stayed any fresh tendering of shops in the PGI in October, 2001. The PGI was asked to constitute two committees to lay down the various terms and conditions for tendering canteens, chemist shops etc. in the PGI to streamline the system once and for all.

The two committees, one headed by Prof S.M. Bose and the other by Prof R.J. Dash, submitted their recommendations to the PGI Director. The PGI Director, who according to sources, is the competent authority to finalise the terms and conditions on which the commercial properties of the PGI would be leased out. This has also been the practice ever since the institute came into existence 40 years ago. However, on this occasion, the Union Minister, who is also the president of the institute, made a demand that he wished to peruse the terms and conditions before they were finalised and issued. As a result, these revised terms and conditions were sent to the Union Minister for perusal in February, 2002. However, according to sources, there has been no response from the Minister’s office and therefore the entire tendering process at the PGI has been on halt since October last year.

The shop owners who have been given extension state that they too are feeling impatient on the issue. “We are on extension with the condition of a 10 per cent hike in rent on each year of the extension period. So the PGI is not losing any revenue. Moreover, everyone is allowed an extension on a yearly basis for a period of five years and we have been here only for four years,” says a representative of the Kumar Brothers chemist shop in PGI.