HEALTH

Experts dwell on cataract surgery
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 4
Around 250 ophthalmologists from all over the region participated in a day-long symposium on cataract surgery for practising eye surgeons at a local eye institute here yesterday.

The programme was divided into two sessions. Dr Mahipal S. Sachdev presided over the morning session, while the afternoon session was presided over by Dr Jagat Ram.

The sessions were followed by a panel discussion. The symposium started with a discussion on “Cataract Surgery — past, present and future” by Dr S.P.S. Grewal. Dr Rajeev Gupta highlighted the importance of good infrastructure.

Dr Grewal informed the audience about a new lens called TECNIS. “This specially designed intra ocular lens improves contrast sensitivity and is supposed to give better night vision”, said Dr Grewal. Dr Jagat Ram spoke on “Paediatric Cataract – Are they different from those in adults?”. Dr Vishali Gupta spoke on “Post Operative Endophthalmitis”, stressing that prevention is better than cure.

SPORTS

Suguna, Taranpreet win carrom tournament
Our Sports Reporter

Junior boys (semi-finals): Taranpreet Pahwa b Neeraj Bharti 25-23, 25-11; Sumit Chakarborty 25-21, 25-8. Men’s singles: Amzad Khan b Gagandeep; Mohd Saleem b DS Aithani; Mukesh Piplani b Vinod Vashisht; Mohd Aneesh b Gurnam Singh; Davinder Singh b Rajan Rekhi; Onkar Singh b Ravinder Sharma; Dhruva b Nirmal Singh; Paramdeep b Neeraj Bharti; Sushil Kumar b TS Arora; KS Patwal b Abhinandan; Riyasat Ali b Jitender Kumar; Majhar Khan b Saurav Kapoor; Sudhir Sidhu b Taranpreet; Mukesh Piplani b Anish. Women’s singles: Saroj Chandel b Soma Rani; Sushil Prasad b Madhu Sharma; Hittu Mahajan b Kumuduni Jain; Bhanu Jain b Komal Sodhi; Inder Kanta b Gursharan.

Hockey championship

The Chandigarh Women’s Hockey Championship began on Monday at the Sector 18 hockey stadium. Guru Gobind Singh College (Sector 26) defeated GMSSS (Sector 19) 2-0 with Pooja and Navjeet each scoring a goal.

In the other matches, Star Club, (Sector 18) defeated Government Senior Secondary School (Sector 47) 3-0 with a goal each scored by Kamal, Sonia and Babita. In another tie, Government College (Sector 20) defeated Government College for Girls (Sector 11) 6-0. In the last match of the day, Khalsa College (Sector 26) beat Sector 18 Stadium XI by 2-0, with a goal scored by Suman and Jaspreet.

Soccer tourney

Government Model High School (Sector 42) defeated Government Model Senior Secondary School (Sector 22) by 4-0 while St Stephen’s School (Sector 45) beat Guru Nanak Public School (Sector 36) by 5-0 in the under-14 section in the pre-Subroto cup soccer tournament for city schools at the Sector 42 sports complex on Monday. In the under-17 section, Government Senior Secondary School (Sector 23) defeated Government Senior Secondary School (Sector 15) by 5-0 while Shishu Niketan School (Sector 22) beat St Xavier’s School (Sector 44) by a goal.

Tribune staffers win

Vikas Ghai and Vinay Chaudhary, both from The Tribune, bagged the inaugural Press Club carrom tournament played here on Monday. Shikha and Shina won in the children’s category. They beat Ankur and Pallavi in the final. In the senior section, in the first semi-final, Vikas and Vinay defeatd Lovekesh and Surinder Puri by three boards to nil. In the second semi-final, Dr and Mrs Bhatia beat Parvesh Kapoor and Gurjand by an identical score. In all, 24 persons took part.

Athletes selected

The Amateur Athletic Association, Chandigarh, has selected 14 athletes, including four girls, to take part in the North Zone Athletic Championship to be held in Delhi on August 18 and 19. The team comprises Sukhvir Singh, Joginder Singh, Surajot Singh, Herwinder Singh, Haminder Pal Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Jatinder Singh, Akshit, Gurinder Singh, Amandeep Singh, Hardeep Kaur, Sakshi Sharma, Pawandeep Kaur and Domingo. This was stated by Mr Ravinder Chaudhary, secretary of the association.

PEC employees register 5-wicket victory
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 4
Fine batting by Rajesh Arora (32) and Gulzar (30) enabled PEC Employees Cricket Club to beat Education Department UT -XI by five wickets in a league match of the inter-institutional cricket tournament of the United India Assurance Cup at the PEC cricket grounds here yesterday.

Education Department UT-XI won the toss and opted to bat first. They started poorly but Raju (18) and Aslam consolidated the innings with a partnership of 42 runs. The innings finally ended at 91 for nine in then allotted 20 overs. Chasing the target, PEC Employees cricket club lost two quick wickets but Rajesh Arora played a sheet-anchor role to achieve the victory target in the 18th over. He was ably supported by middle order batsman Gulzar, who contributed valueable 30 runs.

Brief scores: Education Department UT-XI: 91 for 9 in 20 overs (Raju 18, Aslam, 18, Satish Chaudhary 3 for 13, Jagdish Pathania 2 for 7, Lekh Raj 2 for 9). PEC Employees Cricket Club: 92 for 5 in 17.2 overs (Rajesh Arora 32, Gulzar 30, Aslam 2 for 13, Rajesh 2 for 15).

In another match Harmukh Cricket Club earned two valuable points from Kaushar-XI.

Brief scores: Harmukh Cricket Club: 65 for 3 in 16 overs (Kuldeep Kaul 27, Sanjay Raina 19, Anshu 2 for 15) Kaushar-XI: 61 for 9 in 16 overs (Anshu 20, Ravinder 17, Sanju Kher 3 for 2, Naveen 2 for 7).

In the last match of the day Government Medical College and Hospital (Sector 32) -XI defeated Nestle India - XI by six wickets.

Brief scores: Nestle India-XI: 76 for 6 in 20 overs (Gagan 29, Rajiv 22, Sanjeev Messay 2 for 17, Ankush 2 for 13). GMCH-32 XI: 77 for 4 in 18.2 overs (Anoop 22 n.o., Sudhir 19, Sanjiv (Jr) 18, Rajiv 2 for 15, Sandeep Sandhu 2 for 11).

ADMINISTRATION

Admn kicks off campaign to form self-help groups
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 4
Women who come to study in various adult education centres run by the Chandigarh Administration will now become economically independent, as the administration today kicked off a campaign to encourage formation of self-help groups, which will be run by small thrift societies with the backing of banks and non-government organisations (NGOs).

The administration will provide grants from the Government of India and targets to set up 500 such groups before the end of the financial year in March next year. These groups will be formed at all adult education centres, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Kumar said. The DC also inaugurated a workshop on self-help groups at the Female Literacy House in Sector 42 here today.

The workshop was organised for “preraks” and head “preraks” of the Department of Adult Education. They will act as motivators in forming these groups, which are aimed at making the women economically independent.

The inaugural function was attended by representatives of non-government organisations, branch managers of various banks working in rural areas, the Senior Regional Manager of the PNB, the SDM (South), Ms Madhvi Kataria, and the Deputy Director Adult Education, Ms Sudesh Kalra.

Mr Arun Kumar appreciated the role of the PNB in this direction and called upon the participants to actively participate in the workshop so as to get information about the working of self-help groups.

The Senior Regional Manager-PNB said such groups would comprise 10 to 20 poor persons from a homogeneous strata. The group would be formed and groomed by an NGO or a bank branch or a government agency called “Self-Help Promoting Institution”.

Explaining the system, the DC said members were encouraged to regularly collect small amounts on a weekly or fortnightly basis and use the pooled amount to give interest bearing collateral-free small loans to needy members of the group.

A saving bank account was opened with a bank branch and regular thrift collection and loaning to members built up the financial discipline among members to encourage the bank to provide larger loan to the groups based on multiples of savings internal fund of group.

The concept was popular in South India wherein almost 50 per cent of such groups were functioning to empower rural women.