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| Sunday,
February 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Making ageing a
healthy experience Chandigarh, February 22 Organised by Yuvsatta, the talk also focussed on bio-ethics. “Changing genes for medical reason is one thing but genetic replacement for improving human intelligence and life span is a debatable matter,” said Dr Rattan, who interacted at length with sociologists, psychologists and social workers. Dr Rattan is the only DSc. (Doctorate in Science) in Biogenetology and with his intensive research work has proved himself to be an authority in his subject worldwide. Besides propounding a few theories like role of genes in the ageing process, virtual gene concept and Theory of Hormesis (a theory that says mild stress delays ageing process) , Dr Rattan has also formulated a compound called “Kinetin” — an anti-ageing agent that has been patented by many American cosmetic companies. Dr Rattan hails from Amritsar. After completing his MSc. from Guru Nanak Dev University in Life Sciences, Dr Rattan did his M.Phil from JNU, Delhi, in 1978. He is the first person from Punjab to have done M.Phil from JNU. After receiving the Commonwealth Scholarship, Dr. Rattan completed his Ph.D under world renowned scientist Mr Robin Holiday in London and later joined the Biogenetology Department, AARHUS University in Denmark as a faculty.  |
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Ten probationary nurses
commissioned Panchkula, February 22 Addressing the newly commissioned Nursing Officers, Maj-Gen Sadananda said nursing was a noble profession that embodied the qualities of humanism and empathy providing selfless service in ameliorating the sufferings of wounded and sick soldiers. The MNS motto, “Service with a Smile”, should be foremost even in times of distress, he added. It was a big day for the newly commissioned nursing officers and a proud occasion for their parents and well wishers who were present at the function. Brig V.P. Pathania, Deputy Commandant, welcomed the chief guest and the audience. The school report was presented by Lt-Col (Mrs) K.K. Sharma, Principal Tutor, while Col (Mrs) Usha Arora, Principal Matron proposed the vote of thanks. The commissioned cadets underwent three years training in general nursing and midwifery and were declared successful in the examination held in September, 2002. Lt Seema M. Nair stood first in the batch and secured sixth position at the All-India level, while Lt Sadhana Kumari stood second in the batch and secured eighth position at the All-India level. Lt Chanchal Chaudhary scored maximum marks in the three examinations held by the Armed Forces Medical Services Examination Board. Other commissioned cadets included Lt Bhawna Kanwar, Lt Smitha K, Lt Ashly Mary, Lt Anandi Kumari Chaurasia, Lt Bidisa Chatterjee, Lt Rinta Varghese and Lt Ashu. So far 619 students of this school have been granted commission and are currently serving in various Armed Forces hospitals. |
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Eye hospital to come up on Mansa Devi land Panchkula, February 22 It has now been decided to construct a multi-speciality eye hospital here on one acre of land, adjacent to the proposed Sanskrit Bhavan. This hospital will offer the latest facilities with regards to eye care — sonography, computerised eye testing, cataract surgery, Intra-Ocular lens transplantation, eye grafting, removal of squint, etc. The district administration has made a project report for this eye hospital and forwarded it to the state government for final approval. The project report asks for a staff of 40 to 45, including eye surgeons, at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore. This hospital will also have a Blindness Control and Research and Development Centre, which will be unique to the region. The hospital will have the
capacity of 20 beds in two wards. When contacted, the Deputy Commissioner, Ms Satwanti Ahlawat, said after the project was okayed by the Chief Minister, they would invite tenders for the construction and running of the hospital. She said the SMMDSB would provide the land and overall management, but the hospital would be run by the organisation whose tender was accepted. It may be noted that a Sanskrit Bhavan and a Theme Museum in Mansa Devi area is also proposed to be constructed. The foundation stone for the same was laid by the Union Human Resource Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, last month. The Sanskrit Bhavan, to be spread over two acres, will offer five UGC approved Sanskrit degrees — Pragya, Visharda, Shastri, Karamkand and Sanskrit Sambhajan. The theme Museum to be constructed here at the cost of over Rs 3.5 crore, will be spread over two acres . The proposed museum will have two distinct sections of display — heritage section and the Mother Goddess section. Exhibits of heritage section will include the prehistoric findings highlighting the pre-historic man in India, along with historical and archaeological findings of Panchkula region — sculptures, paintings and manuscripts. The Mother Goddess section will be the main attraction of the museum that will highlight the evolution of Mother Goddess in India and abroad, shakti cult, Shakti and its various forms, worship traditions, rituals and offerings associated with Shakti, arms and ammunition related with Shakti et al. |
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PGI plea for donation Chandigarh, February 22 In a press note, the institute has asked the donors to make the payments through crossed cheques in favour of the PGIMER Director or deposit cash in the fund. Medicines too can be deposited with the Sewa Bharti office at the institute. The press note added that the donors would be eligible for deduction under sub-clause (iii) of Section 80 G (2) of the Income Tax Act of 1961 in the terms of Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Director General of Income Tax (Exemption) Notification dated December 15, 1993. The note further stated that the PGIMER was one of the few government hospitals in the country providing medical care to a large number of poor and needy besides helpless and destitute, patients referred by hospitals in the northern and central states of the country. They were being given life-saving drugs, besides surgery for saving a limb or an organ. Unknown patients were also being helped till they recovered fully and were sent to charity homes. |
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Talk on mental illness held Chandigarh, February 22 Addressing a gathering, Dr Wig, head of the mental health clinic and former Adviser to World Health Organisation, added that mental health professionals might involve families in their treatment programme. He laid emphasis on the role of families on a day-to-day basis in the detection of the problem. He also appreciated the selfless devotion of family members who deliberately and consciously sacrificed a part of their lives for providing care and emotional support to their mentally ill relatives. |
Commercialisation of cricket The World Cup-2003 has further corroborated the fact. In the recent live coverage of various World Cup matches, commercials can be seen even while an over is in progress. These commercials generally focus on batsmen and to some extent on all-rounders and speciality bowlers like Harbhajan Singh. The pressure of sponsors on cricketers has also increased manifold. When the Indian team did not do well in its matches against Holland and Australia, cricketers were under tremendous pressure from sponsors to do well in the coming matches. Sponsors like Sahara India Parivar even gave advertisements in leading newspapers appealing readers to pray for the victory of the Indian cricket team. A sports expert said Sahara India Parivar had been spending too much on cricket during the past few years and any adverse publicity at this stage might jeopardise their image-building exercise. Even the star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had to come forward and appeal through the media from Harare a day before the India-Zimbabwe tie that they would make a comeback and people should not worry any more. True to his words, Indians were very serious in their match against Zimbabwe and did not show any laxity in both batting and bowling. Whether it was pressure of sponsors or otherwise, Indians showed a marked improvement in their mental toughness and defeated Zimbabwe. In the past one week, sponsors and the TV industry were in quandary whether their sales would pick up or not. The dismal performance of India in the first two matches did cast a shadow on the industry and the sponsors, who had already spent a lot on cricketers. A sports expert said, “Once you are at the top or continue winning, people adore you like anything, but if India loses even a single match, thousands of brickbats will automatically pour in.” Sponsors had spent a lot on cricket during this World Cup. A marketing survey indicated if the present trend of shelling out huge amount of money by sponsors continued, then after four years, in the next World Cup in the West Indies each player would be under heavy pressure from sponsors. Hope cricket remains a sport and does not becomes a mere commercial commodity. |
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Sameer emerges best athlete Chandigarh, February 22 The guests were welcomed by Mr Balvinder Singh, the college Principal, while Dr R.S. Brar, Head Physical Education Department of the college, readout the annual report of the college’s sports activities. Results
- 5000 metres: Sameer Singh 1, Aman Handa 2, Imtiaz Khan 3. 100 metres:
Samsudeen 1, Neeraj 2, Ajit 3. Shot put: Samsudeen 1, Gurcharan Singh 2, Aditya Kashyap 3.
High Jump: Rahul Raghav 1, Ajay Kapoor 2, Sandeep 3. 400 metres: Neeraj 1, Hakam Singh 2, Amit 3.
Discus throw: Aditya 1, Shakun 2, Aftab 3. Long jump: Ranbir Singh 1, Somvir Singh 2, Aamar Singh 3.
200 metres: Ajit Singh 1, Hakam Singh 2, Amit Kumar 3. 1500 metres: Sameer Singh 1, Aman Handa 2, Somvir Singh 3.
Javelin throw: Vinod Singh 1, Chander Bahadur 2, Gulzar Singh 3.
800 metres: Ranjit Singh 1, Sameer Singh 2, Amrinder Singh 3.
Tug of war: students 1, Staff 2. Triple jump: Ranbir Singh 1, Rahul Raghav 2, Gurwinder Singh 3. Children’s race:
Abhimanyu 1, Ambar Shante 2, Saachi Shante 3. Musical chairs: Mrs Sagari Thapar 1, Mrs Shimla Bansal 2.
Appointed Mr Rakesh Bakshi, honorary secretary, Chandigarh Football Association, has been appointed member of the Disciplinary Committee of the All-India Football Federation for the year 2003 and 2004. |
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Sports meet begins Chandigarh, February 22 |
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Workshop on Sports & Society Chandigarh, February 22 |
EPFO takes on defaulters Chandigarh, February 22 It has recently got FIRs registered against 17 establishments, including Punjab Recorders Ltd, Punjab Meats Limited, Toshika International, Parco Hotels and Dhandi Constructions, for not depositing the contributions in time”, said Mr N.N. Sharma, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, here today. At a press conference, organised as part of the global-jubilee celebrations of the organisation, he said the management of Punjab Recorders Ltd of SAS Nagar had not deposited a Rs 16.22 lakh contribution for May 2002 to September 2002. Though the company had deducted the employees’ contribution to the PF from their salaries, it had not deposited this as well as its own contribution to the PF under the PF Act, he said. After this period, the company has, allegedly, neither paid its workers nor deposited the contributions to the PF. About the non-depositing of the PF contributions by two construction companies at Ropar Thermal Plant, he said, the department had recovered over Rs 54 lakh from Sodhi Constructors and Rs 19 lakh from Calcutta Construction Company. The remaining amount, he said, would be soon recovered. He said, under its restructuring programme, the department was emphasising on taking timely action against violators of the Act. This had resulted in the recovery of over Rs 2,200 crore of arrears in the past 30 months, against a Rs 770 crore recovery in the previous nine years. Mr Sharma said: “Under the Re-inventional EPF India computerisation programme, the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, would introduce permanent social security numbers for workers and permanent business numbers for establishments on February 25 in New Delhi. The aim is to ensure online accessibility to the PF accounts and easy transfer of the accounts to anywhere in the country, by 2005.” With a corpus of over Rs 1,39,000 crore, the EPFO had planned to launch a housing scheme for its members. Under the scheme, workers would be facilitated to get low-cost houses with the help of state governments and housing agencies. The EPFO would release initial funds from the PF balances of the members with their consent and ensure a timely payment of the EMIs to the housing agency by workers. Mr Sharma said Punjab had become the fourth state in the country where the settlement of the PF-accounts claims had been made fully computerised. The department had also registered a 20 per cent growth in the enrolment of new establishments, to over 18,000, and a 6 per cent growth in membership, to over 20 lakh members in Punjab and Chandigarh, this year. He said employees’ claims would be settled on time, provided all paperwork was completed in time. |
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Rose Festival from
February 28 Chandigarh, February 22 Like previous years, the visitors to the garden will get a chance to see the flowers in full bloom. Meanwhile, the organisers have invited entries for an on the-spot painting competition to be held on March 2, the concluding day of the festival. Entries will close at 5 pm on February 27. The competition has been divided into four groups — Group A: 5 years - 8 years; Group B: above 8 years - 11 years; Group C: above 11 years - 14 years and Group D: above 14 years - 17 years. The entry forms can be obtained from Executive Engineer, Horticulture Division No. 2, Government Nursery, Sector 23, and Main entrance to the Rose Garden, Sector 16. |
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Sweetshops, bakeries raided Panchkula, February 22 A team, comprising DHO, Dr B.D. Chugh, the Naib Tehsildar, Mr Ashwani Gambhir, the Food Inspector, Mr K.K. Sharma, and Dr M.P. Singh, first reached Sector 7 and collected food samples from Singh Sons, Shiv Mishthan Bhandar and Chaman Sweets. The team collected samples of cheese, sweets, biscuits and namkeens being sold in these shops. The team also raided Sai Sweets in Sector 2 and Jai Durga Dairy and Sweets in Sector 4 and collected food samples. According to sources, samples will be sent to the food laboratory in Karnal and the results for the samples will be made available to the authorities within 40 days.
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Chandigarh, February 22