HEALTH

India has 50 m carriers of Hepatitis B
Our Correspondent

Noida, September 19
Liver diseases are among the most important causes of serious illness and are responsible for death of patients between 20 and 50 years- the most productive part of human life.

India ranks among the bottom 10 nations in global ranking for health parameters, while in liver diseases it ranks fourth or fifth worldwide, said Dr B. N. Tandon, chairman of Liver and Digestive Diseases, Metro Hospital, Noida.

India has about 50 million carriers of Hepatitis B virus, 35 per cent of acute hepatitis and 75 per cent of cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis and 40 per cent of all liver cancers, Dr Tandon added.

Hepatitis B infection can be controlled by universal vaccination of newborn and infants. The estimated 50 million carriers of Hepatitis B virus in India are the potential source of infection to others in the country.

To create awareness among the general public, a symposium on common liver diseases and their prevention is being organised at the Amity Business School, Noida, on September 20, where Dr N. K, Ganguly, Director-General Health Services, Indian Council of Medical Research, will be the chief guest.

Eminent specialists including Prof. S. K. Sarin, president, Asian-Pacific Association for Study of Liver, Prof S. K. Acharya, president, Indian Association of Study of Liver, Dr Pankaj Vohra, senior consultant, Pediatric Hepatogastroenterology and Dr Anurag Tandon, senior consultant, Hepatogastroenterology at Metro Hospital and Heart Institute, Noida, will be the other speakers.

The symposium is being jointly organised by the Lions Club, Metro Hospital, Digestive Disease Foundation and Noida Management Association.

Drinking of contaminated water or eating of unhygienic food are the major causes for the spread of these infections.

Hepatitis epidemics are common in India. In 1995, there was a major such epidemic in Delhi with 55,000 jaundice cases and very high death rate among pregnant women.

Hepatitis B and C are the causes of chronic liver diseases, which include hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Safe blood and proper disinfections of needles and instruments can prevent Hepatitis B infection to a great extent.

According to reports blood banks should collect blood only from hepatitis B negative voluntary donors.

All alcoholic drinks whether beer, whisky, or wine have some potential for liver injury, added Dr Tandon.

SPORTS

Top school teams for Parle Cup cricket
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 19
Top 52 school teams of Delhi will participate in the fourth edition of the Parle Cup Inter-School Cricket Tournament for boys under-17, starting on Saturday.

Procen International director P N Shankaran announced in Delhi on Friday that the matches will be played on knock-out basis till the pre-quarter-final stage. He said 48 teams will play on a knock out basis while the four semi-finalists of last year will play from the league stage.

Gyan Bharti Public School will take on Rai Public School, in Pool C at the Gyan Bharati ground and DPS, R K Puram, will meet Springdales, Pusa Road at the DPS ground in the opening matches on Saturday.

Mr Shankaran said the participating teams would be:
Pool A: Salwan Boys, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Guru Harkishan Public School, (India Gate), N C Jindal School, Punjabi Bagh, Delhi Police School, Ramjas No 2, Navyug School, Sarojini Nagar, Vivekanand School, Anand Vihar, Lovely Public, Meera Model, DAV, Janakpuri, Bal Bharati School, Pitampura and Ramjas, R K Puram.

Pool B: St. Columba’s, DAV, Shalimar Bagh, Mount Abu, Rohini, Navyug School, Shankaracharya, St. Marks, Agarsen, ASN School, Ramjas S Wing, Hansraj Smarak, Ramjas Day-Boarding, Govt. School, and St. Michael’s.

Pool C: Govt Boys, Gyan Bharti, Rai Public, Rama Krishna School, Kalka Public, Mount St. Mary’s, Shanti Gyan Niketan, Bal Bharti, St. Marks, DPS, R K Puram, Springdales, SPS, Rajinder Nagar and Bosco School.

Pool D: Hansraj Model, Ravindra, Bharat National, Govt School, Jheel, SBV, Pataudi House, Modern School, Alcon, Frank Anthony, Nutan Vidya Mandir, SPS (Morning), Don Bosco, Greenfield and Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan.

Air India, Indian Airlines move up
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 19
Indian Airlines prevailed over Central Warehousing Corporation by five wickets to enter the semi-final of the All-India Public Sector Cricket Tournament at the Central Secretariat ground.

In the second quarter-final, Air India defeated Airports Authority of India by a thumping 275 runs.

Scores: CWC: 115 all out in 35.4 overs (Amrish Gautam 38, Doda Ganesh 3 for 16, Ishan Ganda 3 for 16).

Indian Airlines: 117 for 5 in 19.2 overs (Manvinder Singh Bisla 71 n o, Mahipal 3 for 16). Bisla was adjudged the man of the match.

Air India: 322 for 4 in 40 overs (Paul Valthaty 91, Tariq Ur Rehman 90, N Doru 51, Rajeev Gupta 2 for 50).

Airports Authority of India: 47 all out in 15.1 overs (Mihir Diwakar 3 for 2, S Sawant 2 for 18, P Gandhe 2 for 1). Paul was named the man of the match.

Saturday’s fixtures: Air India vs ONGC (Roshanara ground); FCI vs Indian Airlines (Central Secretariat ground).

Ramjas School No 2 win

A fine knock of 40 by Rahul Yadav and deadly bowling of 4 for 27 by left-arm spinner Manoj Gupta helped Ramjas School No 2, Anand Parvat defeat DAV School, Shalimar Bagh by three wickets and entered the final of the second Ramjas Inter-School Under-17 Cricket Tournament at the Ramjas Sports Complex ground.

Scores: DAV, Shalimar Bagh: 114 all out in 33.3 overs (Tapan Jain 45, Sahil Chugh 22, Manoj Gupta 4 for 27, Abhishek Sinha 2 for 15, Rajeev Gupta 2 for 15, Ashish Maheshwari 2 for 25).

Ramjas No 2: 115 for 7 in 33 overs (Rahul Yadav 40, Pawan Chauhan 3 for 20, Abhishek Sakuja 2 for 4).

Air Force, National locked goalless
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 19
Defending champions Indian Air Force, New Delhi and former champions Indian National were locked in a goalless draw in the first semi-final match of the Delhi Soccer Association Senior Division Football League Championship at the Ambedkar Stadium on Friday. The teams will meet again in the second leg semi-final on Sunday at 3.30 pm.

Both the teams adopted a cautious approach and had their share of chances to score, but could not translate them into goals.

The first leg of the second semi-final match between Tarun Sangha and Shahdara to be played on Saturday at 4 pm will be treated as a ‘charity’ match for the benefit of the family of former Delhi State captain Dev Raj Katyal who died in Delhi a few months ago. The match will be played under gates, and the ticket has been priced at Rs 10.

Mermier Schools Soccer from today
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 19
The 9th Fr. Peter Mermier Invitational Inter-School Junior Football Tournament will begin on Saturday. The matches will be played on a league-cum-knock out basis.

Prominent school teams who have confirmed their participation are CRPF School (Rohini), N K Bagrodia (Rohini), Don Bosco (Alaknanda),Ramjas (Anand Parbat), Modern School (Vasant Vihar), General Raj School (Haus Khas), DPS (R K Puram), Birla Vidya Niketan, Sumermal Jain School, St. Marks School and hosts St. Francis De Sales.

Birla Vidya Niketan will take on DPS, R K Puram in the opening match on Saturday at 10 am. St. Marks will meet St. Francis De Sales B in the second match at 12.30 pm. Principal of St. Francis De Sales School Rev Fr Jacob will inaugurate the tournament.

Modern School win

Modern School, Barakhamba Road beat Sachdeva School 57-19 in the Ramjas Inter-School Basketball Tournament. Srikant with 18 points top-scored for the winners.

St. Michael beat DPS, Noida 51-23, Salwan Boys beat Ramjas Day-Boarding 34-3 and Mann Public School beat DAV, Shalimar Bagh 51-15 in other matches. Oxford beat DPS, Noida 24-8, Modern beat Ramjas 39-10 in the girls section.

Salwan Public crush Gyan Bharati
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 19
Salwan Public School crushed Gyan Bharati School by 88 runs in the 14th Radha Kishan Cricket Tournament.

Scores: Salwan Public School: 176 for 6 in 30 overs (Arun Kaushik 45, 4x4; Nitin Chugh 33, 2x6; Saurabh Saddi 29 n o, 2x4, 1x6; Ankur Julka 2 for 28, Manav Madan 2 for 32).

Gyan Bharati: 88 all out in 29.4 overs (Kushal Sthapak 21, 3x4; Jatin Aneja 3 for 23, Dhiraj Malik 3 for 11, Saurav Saddi 2 for 24).

In the second match, New Delhi Public School, Vikas Puri defeated Army Public by three wickets.

Scores: Army Public: 119 all out in 24.2 overs (Sumit Agrawal 43, 4x4, 1x6; Gaurav Bhasin 3 for 16, Manoj Sharma 3 for 23).

New Delhi Public: 124 for 7 in 21.4 overs (Jaspreet Singh 57, 7x4, 1x6; Manoj Sharma 25 n o; Sumit Sharma 2 for 22).

Salwan Boys move up

NEW DELHI: Dashing knocks by Neeraj Bansal (65) and Gurpreet Singh (59) and a deadly spell of 6 for 25 by off-spinner Anant Marichi helped Salwan Boys beat Abhinav Public School by 155 runs and entered the semi-final of the St. Giri Inter-School Cricket Tournament at the Paschim Vihar Sports Complex ground.

Abhinav School: 77 all out in 18 overs (Raj Kumar 28, Anant Marichi 6 for 25). OSR

ADMINISTRATION

Sanitation project sent for government approval
Our Correspondent

Jhajjar, September 19
The district administration has sent a sanitation project costing Rs 16.33 lakh for the sanction of the state government. Under this project, sanitation and cleanliness drive would be launched in every village of the district.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mohinder Kumar, said that the project would be for five years and would involve an awareness campaign about cleanliness and the use of toilets in the rural areas.

He said that about one lakh individual toilets would be constructed, apart from public toilets for women and at every Anaganwari centres and schools.

The Deputy Commissioner said that Rs 600 would be distributed to each family selected for the construction of toilets.

He said Rs 20,000 and Rs 5,000 would be distributed for the construction of toilets in schools and Anaganwari centres respectively.

Mr Kumar said villages have been selected for developing them as model villages under this project.

Four public toilets in five villages of each block would be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 3 lakh each, he said.