HEALTH

Drive to popularise rice bran oil
A.S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

SEA will organise the fifth national seminar on edible rice bran oil here on June 30, says Mr Sharma who is also convener of the seminar. A food carnival will also be organised on June 29 at Hotel Shivalikview, Chandigarh, from 3.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. where delicacies prepared in refined rice bran oil will be served to visitors.

Not my statement: complainant
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 8
The inquiry initiated by the PGI to look into the complaint of a man called Raj Kumar, husband of a kidney patient undergoing treatment in the PGI, seems to have reached an impasse. For a change, the complainant is causing the delay, this time.

The complainant says that he has refused to sign under what the PGI has sent him as “his statement” to the inquiry committee, as, the statement has not been noted correctly. Since the PGI cannot go ahead without this statement, the delay continues.

Mr Raj Kumar, who lives in Sector 27, is a Punjab Government driver. His wife, Santosh, has been receiving treatment in the PGI Department of Nephrology since early this year. Mr Raj had alleged that a PGI Head of Department had guided him to a particular shop to buy an expensive surgical item. When he got the item from a different shop at a discount, the doctor and a senior resident refused to sign his bills for reimbursement.

Meanwhile, the HOD, Dr Mukat Minz, in a written statement, said the charges against him were baseless, since he had neither guided Mr Raj to any shop nor refused to sign his bills for reimbursement.

With the problem now lying unsolved, Mr Raj Kumar is in a fix. ‘‘I cannot go to the PGI to show my wife to the doctor. She is having a swelling on her arm where the graft was put. She is undergoing regular dialysis also. I cannot sign the papers the PGI has sent me, since it is not what I have told the committee,” he says.

Gen Kanwar visits rehabilitation centre
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, June 8
The Chief of Staff, Western Command, Lt Gen H.S. Kanwar, paid a visit to the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC), here to catch up on the rehabilitation of paraplegic soldiers.

He was accompanied by Maj Gen R.S. Batra and Maj Gen T.A. D’ Cunha.

Lt Gen Kanwar was briefed about the activities of the centre which is doing a yeoman’s service in looking after the medical and rehabilitative needs of the paraplegic soldiers. Col Jaswant Singh, Director, PRC, said that the centre was established in 1978 and was housing 22 inmates at present.

The Chief of Staff went around the various sections of the centre such as physiotherapy room, wards, vocational training workshop and inmates married quarters. He emphasised the need to rehabilitate them in government and private sector jobs after imparting suitable vocational training.

The vocational training at the PRC is financed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The inmates and their families are trained in cutting and tailoring, knitting with machines, candle-making, caning of chairs and wire-brush making. The products are sold at a nominal price through the Army Welfare Wives Association, shops, unit canteens and sector welfare societies.

Hospital branch opened
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 8
The International Hospital of Natural Therapies opened its branch in the city here today. The hospital already has branches in Delhi, Jalandhar and Mohali and claims to treat people of various diseases without the use of medicines.

This was informed by Dr Rasvinderjit Singh, chief consultant and founder of the hospital, at a press conference held here today.

Dr Singh informed that diseases will be diagnosed and treated through acupressure and other techniques like magnetic therapy, colour and pyramids etc.

The branch will cater to patients with problems like cervicle spondylitis, back pains, slip disc, asthma, hypertension, migraine, diabetes and joint pains.

‘‘One section of the hospital be called the stress-free zone where patients will be provided with specified electromagnetic pyramidle machines and pyramagnetic sleeping system, which is the first in the world.’’ said Dr Singh. The other section will be the slimming zone where those who want to lose weight will be treated.

200 units of blood collected
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 8
The third blood donation camp in the series of six blood donation camps being organised by the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association to meet the shortage of blood during summer months to save the lives of critical patients and thalassaemics was held at the PGI Lecture Theatre number 1 here today.

As many as 200 units of blood were collected during the camp which was inaugurated by Mr F.C. Mittal, spokesperson for Punjab National Bank, Sector 17, Chandigarh. Mr Mittal donated Rs 22,100 on behalf of the staff of the bank for sponsoring the blood donation camp and providing medical help to thalassaemics.

He assured the association that the bank staff would try to create awareness among public for preventing the disease from further spread.

SPORTS

Yoga training camp for students
Our Sports Reporter

He said now yoga had been included at school level and in inter college and inter-varsity programmes. In all, 167 students from various schools and colleges are learning yoga at the camp.

Inter-state badminton championship

The Chandigarh Badminton Association will hold the North zone inter-state badminton championships in September this year. This was stated by Mr TPS Puri, secretary of the association in a press release. He said this meet would have the participants from seven states of the region, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, J&K, Delhi, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. He also said that a two-day competition with visiting UK county badminton players for better exposure, was also mooted.

He said the junior boys would be taken to Shilaru (HP) for an high-altitude training camp. He further said other calender of activities planned during the year included, preparatory coaching camp for sub-juniors, juniors, seniors to be held later this month,, The state championship for all events would be held at Sector 42 indoor badminton hall in July, as well as a coaching camp in advance for the North zone inter-state meet. UT teams would also participate in the national sub-junior and mini championships at Patna in October. The junior national would be held at Guntur in November and prior to that, a coaching camp of seven days would be held. The UT players will also take part in the two grand prix and prize-money tournaments in different parts of the country.

The senior nationals will be held at Guwahati in the first week of January 2003. The UT players will undergo a rigorous coaching camp before taking part in the above nationals.

Chess championship

The Chandigarh Chess Association will conduct the under-25 chess championship-2002 on June 15 and 16 at Jawahar Navodya Vidyalya, Sector 25, to select a team to represent UT in the XIth National under-25 chess championship going to be held at Bangalore from July 17 to 25. OSR

Table tennis meet

Sajal Kaushal of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, in the boys section and Nadia Saini of DAV Public School, Sector 8, in the girls section emerged winners in the final of the first Kishan Lal Arya open table tennis tournament which concluded at DAV Public school here this evening.

Sajal was involved in a tie with Aditya Puri of Manav Mangal School, Sector 21, before the former won in a six-game thriller, 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-1.

Nadia upstaged Ramanpreet Kaur of Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 41, in seven game 12-10, 11-3, 7-11, 11-2, 9-11, 7-11, 15-13. 

Month-long fitness camp of CLTA
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, June 8
The Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA), in collaboration with India’s leading telecom company AIRTEL, is organising a month-long fitness camp till July 3 for various key personnel, including the bureaucrats. According to Mr Rajan Kashyap, Chairman, CLTA, the camp offers three inter-linked facilities, beginning with yoga at 6 am, followed by a workout in CLTA’s high-tech gym and basic coaching on floodlit courts in the late evening. Yoga training is being imparted by Acharya Prem Bhatia, head of the Vishva Bharti Yoga Sansthan, New Delhi, while gym and tennis clinic are conducted by the CLTA’s own specialised faculty of trainers. The programme is part of the CLTA’s efforts to build interest in physical fitness and tennis skills among general masses.

Ranking tournament

The qualifying rounds of the AITA North Zone Ranking Tennis Tournament began here on Saturday in tennis stadium, Sector 10. Those who entered the fourth round in boys under-14 section included, Ankit Sachdeva, Deepinder Singh, Vikramaditya, Kanav, Abheet, Sandeep, Siddharth, Nakul, Kuldeep, Nikhil, Ramit, Gaurav, Naren, Samerpit, Ayush, Pankaj and Gaurav.

In the under-16, section, those making third round were, Karan, Gurdit, Kunal, Kinshuk, Gursimran, Uday, Kushagra, Ayush, Vijayant, Simerveer, Baljinder, Kush, Sanjog, Navinder, Gurpit, Navinder Pal, Shriyansh, Vikramaditya, Varun, Satvir, Keshav, Jai Vinod, Mandeep, Gaurav Sharma, Rohit, Simranjit and Kanav.

Local players need to work hard: coach
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, June 8
The carrom training camp organised by the Chandigarh Carrom Association in the local St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, concluded here today. The camp was held under the guidance of a former international carrom player, Arun Kedar. He in his six-day stay here at Chandigarh gave useful tips to players. According to him, players did well during the camp, but they should devote more time to practice. Kedar, who belongs to Maharashtra, said the local boys were still far away from reaching the level of game of even an ordinary player of Maharashtra. He thanked the Chandigarh Carrom Association, especially its secretary Mahesh Sekhri, in making efforts to promote this sport.

Gagandeep, a senior carrom player was high in spirits and said tips from a reputed international player would help them in improving their game.

Taranpreet, a sub-junior player, was of the view that the camp should have been of more duration.

Piyush Sood, a sub-junior, said some of the coaching tips were really good and he would like to use these in the forthcoming tournaments. Pallavi Piplani, a sub-junior player, said some of the fundamentals she learnt were quite crucial and she was grateful to the association for arranging these camp.

Sanjay Negi, a senior player, Harmanpreet, a junior player, and Varun Sood, a sub-junior player, seemed satisfied with the camp. They all said they would follow the instructions given by Kedar.