HEALTH

Colourful candies — not so cool
Asha Ahuja

Ludhiana, June 13
When mercury soars and when one is out on the road, sweaty, thirsty, reeling under the hot sun, the ice candy man with his colourful and tempting candies seems to be the life saver. Young and old all succumb to the temptation of the ice balls, popularly known as ‘barf ke gole’ sprinkled liberally with brightly-coloured red, green and orange ‘sherbets’. Everyone wants to suck the cool ice ball to get some relief from the fury of the ball of fire. -sun- without bothering about what it is going to do to the digestive system later on. Rahul and his friends among the many who fell sick after sucking the ‘oh’ so-tempting ‘barf ke gole’. They had to be hospitalised as the ‘ice’ was made with highly impure water,” according to the doctor.

First of all the ice factories are located in very dingy parts of the city. The water used for making ice is of dubious quality. After these ice slabs come out of the antiquated machines, they are handled by not very clean pair of hands. Ice slabs are piled atop each other in a cart and covered with a sack and out these go in the traffic accumulating dirt and smoke on way to an ice depot. The ice candy man purchases his slab of ice from here and carts it on his cart and covers with a sack. No one can vouch for hygiene in the entire process. Everyone is aware that water-borne diseases like dysentry, jaundice, typhoid are more prevalent in summers.

The colourful array of different sherbets which the ice candy man applies with a flourish to make the ice candy too spell trouble. The sherbets use colours of cheap quality that can further cause damage to the digestive system. The scraper on which the man scrapes the ice to make fluffy ice balls is surrounded by flies. Imagine the damage when one eats this ‘tempting’ ice candy having deadly combination of ice made with unclean water and cheap colours. Moreover, it is made by the hands of person who might be a carrier of amoeboises, a disease which 80 per cent of Indians suffer from. These ‘yummy’ barf ke gole are a definite recipe for inviting diseases. Appearences are deceptive is very true as these look very delicious, but under the appealing exterior are lurking hosts of diseases ranging from mild attack of gastritis to a severe attack of food poisoning which might require hospitalisation. So think twice before you lick these luscious ‘golas’ the next time.

DMCH employees go on strike
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 13
Employees of the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital today went on a strike in response to a call given by the employees’ union. The strike call was given following the breakdown of talks between the union leaders and the management over the shifting of the Gastroenterology Ward.

According to a press note, the union members met the Principal and the medical superintendent and had detailed discussion in the morning. The press note claimed that during the meeting, the union leaders raised the issue that since the Gastroenterology Ward had been shifted, the OPD and the Endoscopy Department should be closed down. It claimed that the union leaders did not assign any reasons for the same.

The press note further stated when the union members were told that the demand was “illogical and illegal and cannot be entertained”, they allegedly threatened the management of stopping the functioning of the hospital. They reportedly walked out of the meeting at that stage. The union leaders, including Mr Chander Mohan Kalia, Ms Navraj Kaur and Ms Rajwant Kaur, “forcibly disrupted the working of the Gastroenterology OPD and the endoscopy section and also did not allow Dr Ajit Sod to see 50 to 60 OPD patients and they also did not allow the attendants to meet the Principal and the medical superintendent”.

None of the union leaders could be contacted despite repeated attempts. 

CITY SPORT
Maiden victory for SAN Jain School
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 13
A fine bowling performance (5 for 23) by Karan steered SAN Jain Senior Secondary School to their first victory by 22 runs against Green Land Senior Secondary School in the eighth league match of the Sixth Chaman Lal Malhotra Cricket Cup Tournament for boys U-15 being organised by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association in the Arya College for Boys ground here today. This was second loss for Green Land School in four matches.

Green Land Senior Secondary School won the toss and put SAN Jain School into bat. They made 210 runs for the loss of four wickets in 25 overs. In reply, Green Land Senior Secondary School could muster 188 runs in 25 overs, thus falling short of the target by 22 runs. Brief scores: SAN Jain Senior Secondary School — 210 for 4 ( Chinton 24, Sanjeev 34, Tarun Passi 42, Pawan 44, Vaneet 16 not out and Gurjinder 2 for 36 )

Green Land Senior Secondary School — 188 for 8 ( Gurjinder 62, Himanshu 28, Aashish 24, Karan 5 for 23, Chinton 1 for 32, Sanjeev 1 for 31 and Sunny 1 or 42).