PGI doctors win awards
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 11
To reduce the ill effects of the radiation of X rays taken for gastroenterological disorders, the Department of gastroenterology at PGI has worked out an ultrasonic technique of Sonoenteroclysis. Claiming that the PGI has become the first centre in the country to come up with the technique, in which barium is not used, Chairperson of the department Prof B. Nagi told mediapersons today that in sonoenteroloclysis polyethelene glycol is inserted through the nostrils of the patients to point out the problems in the intestines. With this technique, the intestinal problems can be detected within half an hour. ``So far we have used this technique on 40 patients and the results are comparable to the barium technology,'' said Prof Nagi.

Dr Surinder Rana and Prof B. Nagi have bagged the Young Investigator Award for their paper which highlighted this new technique at the 45th annual conference of Indian Society of Gastroenterology (ISGCON-2004) , organised at Jaipur from October 1 to 5.

Four other faculty members of the department bagged national awards at the same conference.

Prof Deepak K. Bhasin has been elected president of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology at the conference.

Dr Surinder Rana and the Prof Bhasin were given the Best Paper award for their paper ``Management of pancreatic ascites, pleural effusion and external pancreatic fistulae by nasopancreatic drain placement.''

Dr Sonia Bhonchal and Dr C. K. Nain were awarded in the plenary session of the conference for the study of the liver diseases for their paper titled ``Pathological and microbiological alterations in small intestinal mucosa in patients of alcoholic liver diseases with cirrhosis.'' In their paper they have highlighted that contrary to the prevalent belief that alcohol affects liver and pancreas, the alcohol intake also adversely affects the intestines in the body.

In the same plenary session Dr Mohit Nanda and Prof Deepak K. Bhasin bagged the award for their paper.

Dr Usha Dutta bagged the Om Prakash Memorial Award,which is awarded to the below 40 young scientist. She received the award for her ten best international research publications.

Convention of medical technologists held
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 11
Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, member of Parliament from the city, has extended all help for the formation of a college for medical technology at the PGI and a national council for medical technologists.

Mr Bansal, while delivering inaugural address at the fifth convention of the PGI Medical Technologists Association yesterday, praised the academic efforts of the association.

More than 250 members of the association from different parts of the country attended the convention.

Prof K.K. Talwar, Director, PGI, said he was pleased with the efforts of the association to highlight the diagnostic role of medical technology and stressed on having similar courses in the allied medical professions.

The Dean, PGI, Prof Sudha Suri, reiterated the need for having an independent college for medical technology and requirement of forming a medical technology council.

The session of the association was devoted to the HIV\AIDS and hospital-acquired infections.

28,238 kids get polio vaccination
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, October 11
As many as 28,238 children were administered vaccination against polio in the Pulse Polio eradication drive by the local health authorities against the target of 34,000. According to Dr Ram Kumar, SMO of Dera Bassi, 25,238 children were administered polio drops in the subdivision on Sunday and 3000 were vaccinated today.

He disclosed that 135 teams of paramedical staff, local dental college and other social organisations joined hands to vaccinate children. The children, who could not be given anti polio vaccine yesterday, were covered by the mobile teams in a door-to-door campaign. The teams also visited brick kilns and other slum areas to eradicate the dreaded disease, claimed Dr Kumar.

Shuttlers get comfortable stay, courtesy CBA 
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, October 11
Whenever any tournament of zonal or national level is held in the city and adjoining areas, it has been noticed that the hosts give less importance to the lodging and boarding arrangements for the participants, while more emphasis is laid on placating the officials.

Recently, the sportspersons, who came to Panchkula for the Haryana State Games, were reportedly handed over a raw treatment as far as the boarding and lodging was concerned.

Earlier also, during the North Zone Inter-State Badminton Meet held at Panchkula last September, the players were allegedly made to stay in not so good conditions.

The general apathy towards the comfort of players also holds good for those participating in the national school, state school, inter- college and inter-university level meets and other tournaments in city.

But as a pleasant exception, the participants at the 18th National Sub-Junior Badminton Championship, with participation of nearly 400 players in the age groups of below 16 and below 13, have been put up in hotels in Sector 35 and Sector 24.

With a budget of nearly Rs 15 lakh, the gigantic task was taken by the Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) to hold this mega event for the first time in the city beautiful.

Mr M.C. Sethi, President of the CBA said earlier they had played host to the Junior National Meet in 2000 and they were applauded for organising it in a befitting manner by the Badminton Association of India.

Encouraged by the response of the BAI, we offered to hold the Sub-Junior National Meet-2004, he added.

Mr T.P.S. Puri, a former chief National Badminton coach and now the secretary of the local the local association said,”Raising this huge amount without title sponsor was difficult for a sport like badminton.”

He said the Government of India would give a grant of Rs Six lakh for this meet while Yonex, a leading sports company of Japan has agreed to sponsor in kind the momentos and few boxes of shuttlecocks, but rest of the money had to be raised from various sources.

He said whatever be the reason, they would never have compromised with the comfort to be provided to the young players who were the future of the country.

Mr Puri thanked the UT Administration for not charging any amount for the consumption of electricity during the tournament days, as the sport was played indoors and there would be more than 10 hours of play daily.

He said Mr M.P. Singh, Commissioner of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, was an ardent badminton lover and took personal pains to see that nationals could be organized in a better way.

Mr D.K. Mukerjee, founder-member of the CBA, said it was now more than 16 years when they got the direct affiliation with the BAI. Earlier, the city players used to represent Punjab or Haryana in the Nationals.

Mr Surinder Mahajan, Technical Director of the CBA, said any tournament of national level in the city would give tremendous boost to the cause of badminton. After the Junior Nationals in 2000, our players got motivated and we became a force to reckon with, he added.

He hoped the Sub-Junior Nationals would further give an impetus to the badminton in the region.

Gurnoor bags gold in rowing meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, October 11
Gurnoor Kaur of Chandigarh, who represented the Chandigarh Rowing Association, won the gold medal in the single sculls event with timing of 8.53.97 in the 25th Junior National Rowing Championships that concluded near Hardwar yesterday.

Other city rowers, Manjit Singh, Bittu, Manjeet Singh and Hardeep Singh, bagged the silver medal with the timing of 6.57.25.

The coxless pair of Gaurav and Ravi got the bronze medal with a timing of 7.45.99.

The competitions were held on the 2000m-long course in the Hardwar-Kanpur canal.

Fifteen rowing associations from all over the country participated in the following events for men and women: single sculls, double sculls, coxless pairs, coxless fours, according to information received by the Chandigarh Rowing Association.

Table soccer meet: Shishu Niketan Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, bagged the overall trophy in the first Chandigarh State Table Soccer Championship that concluded in Sector 22 on Sunday evening.