 |
|
| Sunday,
April 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India
|
|
||||
EVENING OPDs Chandigarh, April 12 Started with much fanfare last year in December as the brainchild of filmstar-turned-politician, Mr Shatrughan Sinha, the PGI authorities had expected that with the onset of summer the number of patients would go up. It was with great reluctance that the PGI had started the facility as both the faculty members as well as resident doctors were opposed to the idea from the very
beginning. The Union Health Minister, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, during her recent visit to PGI had stated that if she felt the facility was not serving much of a purpose, it could be reviewed. “From time to time we have been sending the response to the facility in terms of number of patients turning up for treatment to the minister and now it is totally up to her, whether it should be continued or scrapped,” informed a PGI official. Interestingly, the number of patients coming to the evening OPD, in six faculties has gone down from an average of 45 in January to about 35 this month. “Since we were compelled to start the facility in a haste, with practically no additional staff or infrastructure, we were dreading that in summers more people would come, making our task difficult,” explained doctors. It is only on a handful occasions, since the facility was started four months back, that the number of patients has touched 50. “While on April 4, merely 29 patients turned up, this number was 34 on April 8, so I do not think it is worthwhile to keep the facility running,” reasoned out a head of department. However, the fact the former Health Minister, Mr Shatrughan Sinha, during his recent visit to Panchkula had stated that he had met the Prime Minister, requesting him to keep the evening OPD facility running, the fate of the facility remained uncertain. Defending his decision of starting the facility, he said it was a very good idea and had he continued as the Health Minister, he would have ensured its continuity and smooth functioning. While some felt that until the facility of laboratory tests and investigations was added in the evening OPDs also, it would not be viable. “If patients have to come back the next day for medical tests, they feel the facility does not serve the purpose”, pointed out doctors. On the other hand, with the existing staff and infrastructure it was impossible for the PGI to continue this facility. Both the PGI administration as well as faculty members were hoping that seeing the poor response to the facility they would be relieved soon from the additional task of running evening OPDs. |
|
Winds of disease blowing in Colony No. 4 Chandigarh, April 12 Chandigarh Tribune correspondent, on a visit here, came across garbage heaps, filth, smell, flies and mosquitoes only days after the Chandigarh Administration and the municipal corporation took stock of the situation to prevent reoccurrence of outbreak of diseases, like the one witnessed last year in Nehru Colony and Daddu Majra. A resident, Mr Radhey Shyam, says there have been no major complaints of diseases, so far but the residents are afraid that once the winds from the south-east blow, flies and smell will invade the colony. He said the entire population of around 50,000 had been openly defecating in the jungle towards the south-east of the colony due to lack of public toilets. A BJP activist, Ms Manjeet Kaur, said the defecation in the open had exposed the womenfolk to the risk of being attacked by anti-social elements and there had been instances when gangs had assaulted women. She said two mobile public toilets, where paid services were available, were not affordable for families earning Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. Called “mini India” of the city with migrants labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana making it their home, the colony is strewn with garbage as the sweeping and cleaning staff of private contractor had not been seen here for more than one year, Mr Deen Dayal Tripathi said. Naked electricity wires, power distribution system under a contractor, lack of public toilets and fumigation, stagnant water in each its streets and an average dependence of more than 800 persons on one public water supply tap have exposed the residents to diseases. The residents complained that though the authorities consider the water supplied to the area surplus, despite an acute shortage, yet problems like cholera could not be ruled out. There is fear on the air that diseases could break in the colony once the temperatures go up. They said malaria was virtually at their doors and mosquitoes had found vast breeding spaces in the streets where water was either stagnant or drains were open. None of the drains were covered. A main water supply line has been leaking for three years in the E block and the Prabhavati Devi said the public tap in the block had not been functioning for a year. Ms Komal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said the residents were living in sub-human conditions. The residents keep animals in the residential areas, leading to heaps of cow dung in the colony. And in the rainy season, the woes of the people increase with no proper outlet for sewerage. |
|
Health officials visit slum colonies Chandigarh, April 12 According to the health officials, three gastroenteritis cases had been admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, and five at the Sector 16 General Hospital. No fresh admission has been made at the PGI here. The health officials said though there had not been a single case of cholera, a few patients suffering from gastroenteritis and diarrhoea were coming to hospitals. “We are keeping a close watch on the situation to prevent an outbreak of the disease as teams from the Health Department are visiting slums colonies,” said Dr Kalra. He said sanitary inspectors had been directed to treat all stagnant water points with oil and sprinkle lime at all garbage dumping sites. He said special attention was being paid towards providing safe drinking water to the residents. |
Mandeep, Yuvresh to clash in final Chandigarh, April 12 The results: Semi-Finals girls( under14): Jaanesh Kaur b Ekrup, Divya Rangray b Chankrit. Under-12: Jaanesh Kaur b Vaani Kohli, Pallak Grewal b Aarushi Singla; boys (under-18): Karan Patnaik b Rohan Bhandari, Gurmohar Brar b Parvesh Kumar; under-14: Mandeep Yadav b Navdeep Singh, Yuvresh Bansal b Ishaan Thukral; under-12: Ankit Badoni b Raghav Singhal, Akshat Joshi b Abhairaj; under-10: Garry Amor Singh b Samin Bharghav, Fateh Singh b Sanyam Gupta; under-12: QF: Ankit Badoni b Jivtesh Kang, Raghav Singhal b Shiv Tandon, Abhairaj b Garry Amor Singh, Akshat Joshi b Mandeep Gill; boys under-14: MandeepYadav b Navkaran Gill, Navdeep Singh b Ankit, Ishaan Thukral, Yuvresh Bansal b Akshay Chopra. Roller skating meet The Chandigarh State Roller Skating championship will be held at KB DAV Centenary School, Sector 7, here on April 19 and 20. According to a press note of the Chandigarh Roller Skating Association, the UT teams for the 40th National Roller Skating championship to be held in Kolkata from May 4 to 9 will also be selected on the basis of this two-day meet. Entries close on April 18. Nestle-Xl register win A superb performance by Ajay Disodia, who scored unbeaten 51 runs and claimed two wickets for 21 runs, enabled Nestle-XI beat 3BRD Air Force-XI by eight wickets in the ICL Certification Cup League Cricket Tournament played at the JR Institute of Cricket Technology, Barwala, here today. In another match, fine bowling by Sanjeev who claimed four wickets for 22 runs, helped Chandigarh XI beat Century Steel Industries by five wickets. Cricket tourney Gallant-XI defeated On Dot Courier XI by 96 runs in a ‘C’ division match of the VIITh UT League Cricket Tournament being played here at Sector16 stadium. In another match, Sonnet Cricket Club defeated Power Cricket Club by 58 runs, Garhwal Cricket Club beat Minerva Academy by nine wickets, Suriya Cricket Club defeated Inde-Dutch-XI by 85 runs, while Chandigarh Boys zone outplayed Parinda-XI by eight wickets. Title for Stadium-XI Stadium-XI Sector 16, bagged the under-12 title in the first S.N. Vohra Memorial Cricket Tournament played here today at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium. They outplayed St. John’s Coaching Centre by 114 runs in the finals played today. It was fine batting performance by star batsmen, Gurinder, Gaurav Puri, Sahil Malhotra and Manan Vohra that enabled Stadium XI pile up a total of 180 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Earlier, after winning the toss, Stadium XI elected to bat first. In reply, St John’s Coaching Centre were all out for 66 runs in 26 overs. The chief guest, Mr Chandersekhar, IG, Border Range, gave away the prizes. Mr D.P. Azad, Dronacharya, awardee, gave a cash prize of Rs 2,000 to the best player of the tournament, Mr Gurinder Singh. Brief scores: Manan Vohra 21, Gaurav Puri 31, Gurinder 37, Sahil Malhotra 33, Angad Singh 2 for 28, Sidharth Prasher 2 for 49. St. John’s CC: Kunal Mahajan 17, Akshit 4 for 15, Gurinder Singh 2 for 13. |
MC caught on wrong foot Chandigarh, April 12 The money was deposited on April 7, for a period of 30 days at the rate of Rs 1000 per day, as offered by the promoter of the Jumbo Circus, which had forwarded its application for taking the ground on rent, at least two months back. Despite, two Finance and Contract Committee meetings being held during the period, the application of the promoter was not placed before the most powerful committee of the corporation for approval. Meanwhile, the promoter apparently got an impression after the deposit was received that his application had been accepted. Following the deposit, he dumped his material at the ground yesterday, believing the circus could start as scheduled, from the next week. But, he was in for a horrifying time when he approached the MC authorities, on April 8, to seek a formal letter of approval for starting the circus. Because when the matter came to the notice of the higher authorities, officials of the Enforcement Wing were called to get a case registered against the promoter for illegally occupying the place without any
official approval. “It is a clear case of negligence in duty by the authorities concerned for not informing the Enforcement Wing to take action against the promoters of circus, when they had dumped their material in the circus ground on Monday (April 7) evening, after depositing Rs 30,000 without prior approval in written”, admitted a senior functionary of the MC. Moreover, the authorities concerned, in order to save their skin, forwarded a proposal to the Commissioner on April 9, to allow the promoters of the circus to organise their show, with an advance security deposit of Rs 2 lakh and subject to the approval of the F&CC. When contacted, Mr MP Singh, Commissioner said, “The proposal came to me but I have referred it to the Mayor for final decision”. On the other hand, the Mayor Mr Subhash Chawla, got a sum of Rs 2 lakh deposited in the MC accounts along with a written undertaking duly signed by Mr Satish Sharma, promoter of the circus that “the rates as to be decided by the F&CC in the coming meeting, would be acceptable to him”. Since the circus is a dying medium of entertainment in the country; the F&CC had earlier rented out the Circus Ground at concessional rates (Rs 6,000 per day), lower than the notified rate of Rs 15,000 per day. Another MC official clarified that the promoter of the circus would have to deposit Rs 15,000 per day, in case, the F&CC rejected his application. Mr Ajay Shankar, owner of the circus was not available for comments as one of his employee disclosed that he was out of station. |
|
MC to streamline privatisation work
Chandigarh, April 12 Moreover, the present contract system of sanitation work in various segments has faced a general criticism of the Councillors, Resident Welfare Associations
(RWAs) and senior officials of the MC with a common view that it has not brought satisfactory results to keep the city clean. Following a review of the prevailing system, the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) of the MC had earlier recommended to the general house to go in for a single contract in all the 20 southern sectors, four villages and colonies, thereby, making them garbage-bin free. The matter was also placed before the general house of the MC in the last meeting held on March 31 but could not be discussed due to disturbances created by the BJP councillors. The matter is likely to come up before the coming general house meeting, scheduled in the last week of this month. In the meantime, the ruling councillors and senior officials of the MC have agreed upon to divide the privatisation work in two zones. Dr
G.C. Bansal, Municipal Health Officer, said that the privatisation would be made compact and the MC itself would manage the scattered privatised areas. “There is no question of retrenchment of sweepers. In other terms it would reduce their work burden”, he added. He said: “Under the amended proposal it would be mandatory for the contractors to raise the required infrastructure before the start of the work, compile a daily report of performance duly attested by the local
RWA, pay minimum wages to the employees, to arrange proper dress for the sweepers, provide 40 mobile phones to all the supervisors and deposit a security of Rs 15 lakhs at the time of submission of offer to work”. According to the amended proposal, the contractor would be asked to ensure collection of waste material twice daily, sweeping internal roads & market places daily (including Sundays except for gazetted holidays), cleaning of open drains, removal of small dead animals and all kinds of birds, collection of waste material from marriage halls/community centres, transportation of waste to the designated place, to remove all kinds of garbage/cow dung etc., employees are in proper uniform, ensure health and safety measures for their employees and pay salary in time in accordance to the minimum wages. Mr Subhash Chawla, Mayor of the MC, said this system would ensure direct service opportunities to at least 700 persons at minimum wages recommended by the Union Government from time to time. It would also help to reduce the burden of work on the sweepers of MC and above all reducing the financial burden incurred on MC to develop own infrastructure for the purpose. He further said the contractor would have to purchase at least five tractor-trolleys, 300 wheelbarrows and 250 handcarts within 15 days of getting the contract. “This would help MC in cost-cuts, on raising the infrastructure”, he added. |
|
District Court gets fire
safety equipment Chandigarh, April 12 The Fire Department has installed the fire safety equipment on the court premises following directions issued by the high court acting on the PIL filed by an NGO. In 1999 a fire that broke out in the record room of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had destroyed a large number of valuable documents. Thereafter, many PILs were filed in the courts to strengthen the fire services in the Union Territory. Acting on a PIL filed by the Lawyers for Social Reform, the court had directed the UT Administration and municipal corporation officials to ensure the safety of the buildings in the city, said the general secretary of Lawyers for Social Reform, Mr Arunjeev Singh
Walia. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
