The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Malaria making a comeback: expert
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 19
The country is not just witnessing a resurgence of malaria but with steady increase in the number of drug-resistant parasites causing the disease in India, the future scenario could be grim as is the case in Africa.

Sounding a word of caution, the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Prof G. Padmanabhan, said with the DDT programme, launched to eradicate the carrier mosquito being stopped, almost two million people in India suffer from malaria annually. “With the drug-resistant plasmodium falciparum parasite being imported into India in large numbers, the situation could become alarming as these mosquitoes are resistant to chloroquinine drug,” he said.

Professor Padmanabhan was today delivering the P.N. Chuttani oration at the PGI. He said till now 60 per cent of malaria causing parasite in India was plasmodium vivax, which is easier to treat and responds well to drugs. “Our only concern is that with the drug-resistant parasite being found in more and more places, the need to develop new anti-malaria drugs is becoming more real,” he opined.

Terming malaria as a disease of the poor man, he said hardly any pharmaceutical company was willing to pump in money for research to develop a vaccine. “Now our endeavour is to use the molecules in the anti-tubercular drugs for treating malaria, as this was the best option with very limited resources,” he stated.

Professor Padmanabhan, who is doing research on using anti-tubercular drugs for treating malaria, said the results so far were very encouraging. “The clinical trials are already on and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is studying the data and has constituted committees to look into it,” he disclosed.

He said malaria, after HIV and tuberculosis, was affecting maximum number of people in the world. He added global efforts were on to at least contain the disease if not eradicate it. “Even though efforts are on to develop a vaccine and laboratory studies are being conducted, I am not very hopeful of breakthrough being made for another decade,” he remarked.

He said in India it was the North-East, pockets in Orissa, Karnataka and Rajasthan, where the situation was alarming due to increase in the number of drug-resistant parasites. In Africa, the situation is the worst as over 1.52 million are dying due to malaria.

Pinjore resident down with cholera
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 19
A 12-year-old patient, Dharam Vir of Pinjore, has tested positive for cholera.

Dharam Vir was admitted to the PGI on July 17 and was under going treatment. With this the total number of cholera cases, including that from Mohali, has risen to seven.

Meanwhile, a team of health officials, including Director, Dr C.P. Bansal, visited Maloya.

The health team distributed chlorine tablets and pamphlets and made the people aware about preventive measures against diarrhoea.

SPORTS

Minerva Academy XI reach last four
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, July 19
A superb bowling by Ranjit Bajaj helped his team Minerva Academy wreck its opponents PEC-XI by 62 runs to storm into the last four of the First IS Deol Memorial Cricket Tournament played here today at the Sector 16 cricket stadium. He claimed four wickets for just 14 runs.

Minerva Academy-XI scored 120 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Anurag Chopra scored 41 runs, while Rakesh Jolly made 17. Rahul bagged three wickets for 19 runs, while Parvesh and Saurav both took two wickets each. In reply, PEC-XI were bowled out for 58 runs in 16.5 overs (Rakesh Jolly and Amit Kumar took three wickets each).

Arjun shoots gold

Arjun Pratap won first place in the Small Bore Free Rifle ISSF prone junior men section in the 26th Chandigarh State Shooting Championship that entered the penultimate day here today at Patiali Ki Rao Shooting Range, Sector 25. Arjun shot 283/300.

Another promising shooter Harminder Singh, a student of Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, won gold medal in air rifle ISSF junior men section by shooting 585/600.

Earlier, Bhai Gurjinder Singh Bhucho of SGGS College, Sector 26, bagged two medals, with one gold medal in .22 3 position rifle and a silver medal in .22 prone rifle in the junior section.

Navneet Singh bagged gold medal in the air pistol (NR) seniormen section by shooting 357/400, while in the junior men section, Indermeet Sarao took gold medal by shooting 340/400. Akhil Pahuja won gold medal in the air pistol ISSF junior men section by securing 555/600.

In the senior women section, Minerva Singh shot 355/400. Roopmeet Mann won gold medal in the air rifle ISSF senior women section by scoring 338/400. Anaahat Dhindsa bagged gold medal in the small bore sports rifle ISSF prone in senior women and junior women. She shot 284/300.

Body to honour spikers

The Chandigarh Volleyball Association and Shivalik Volleyball Academy will jointly honour the four spikers of the HSIDC who won laurels for the country recently at the World Youth Volleyball Meet held in Thailand. The function will take place tomorrow on the premises of Shivalik Public School, Sector 41.

ADMINISTRATION

Admn decision gladdens senior citizens
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 19
No need to stand in long queues for getting the vehicles registered, at hospitals or for purchasing railway tickets. Senior citizens here are jubilant over the UT Administration’s decision of reducing the age limit for them.

Till now they had to wait till the age of 65 for availing the privileges and the benefits, while the women could enjoy these at 60.

The decision is significant as thousands of residents will benefit from it. At present, there are over one lakh senior citizens in the city. Now the more citizens will be able to enjoy 30 per cent discount on rail travel. They will also be able to avail as much as 50 per cent concession while travelling within the city on the buses run by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking.

Estate Office set to go hi-tech
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 19
The UT Estate Office is all set to go high-tech, with its project for outsourcing of payment collection and computerisation likely to become a reality soon.

According to an official press note issued here today, the Estate Office is in the process of finalising an MoU with a commercial bank in this connection. The proposed arrangement is expected to outsource the payment collection at the Estate Office to an extension counter as well as in the Union Territory of Chandigarh through various branches of the bank.

Besides, more than 70,000 record files of the Estate Office are to be converted into electronic files and put online. The ground floor of the Estate Office, which is about 3000 sq ft, is to be air-conditioned and the general ambience to be made more comfortable. In a massive computerisation exercise involving about 100 computers, local area network will to be created in the office.

The Estate Office is also expected to engage a reputed agency as quality auditor for software and hardware. A help desk will be established for collection of cash, demand drafts and to guide visitors during office hours. The Estate Office staff will be trained and made more people-friendly and efficient. They are also to be issued identity cards for their proper identification.

The sanitation of the premises is to be improved. The ATM facility is to be introduced at the extension counter. Along with computerisation, the processors are to be simplified and records are to be put online to curtail the processing time and delays.

The action for a new-look Estate Office is to be launched with the signing of the MoU, which is expected shortly. The building branch of the Estate Office will be computerised in collaboration with the Centre for Computational Engineering, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, for which spade work is being done.