HEALTH

Surgical equipment to be sterilised a day in advance
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 3
Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, has decided to sterilise all surgical equipment a day in advance of the planned surgeries so that the delay in scheduled operations could be avoided.

The move was made after the highly inflammable ethylene oxide gas leaked from the Central Sterilization Services Department (CSSD) at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, which led to postponing of over 40 planned surgeries due to lack of sterlisation of the equipment.

“While the material which the patients get themselves for the operations are already sterilised, the delay occurs in sterilising the material, including the gowns worn by the doctors and the surgical tools, which are provided within the hospital.

If sterlisation is done in advance, the planned surgeries could be performed in time,’’ Prof H.M. Swami, director-principal of the GMCH-32 said while talking to Chandigarh Tribune.

The Director Principal has also marked an inquiry to the GMCH’s Medical Superintendent Prof J.K. Dass to probe into the Wednesday’s incident of gas leakage.

Sources in the hospital said the incident took place when the poisonous gas leaked from the bowler in the CSSD. Once the gas spread within the department, panic gripped after around 30 persons present in CSSD noticed the leakage when ethylene oxide had frozen in the room temperature after it had come out of the bowler. The authorities were immediately informed and the repair work was completed within two hours of the leakage. All the planned surgeries were immediately postponed and only the emergencies surgeries were performed on Wednesday.

“The planned surgeries were resumed today and the necessary arrangements were made in the operation theatres,” said Prof Swami.

Meanwhile, the GMCH has also started round the clock liquid oxygen plant within its premises for the undisrupted supply of oxygen to all wards and the operation theatres from today.

The plant has come about with the investment of more than Rs 40 lakh. With the supply of the oxygen through the direct pipes, the storage of the oxygen cylinders would not be required.

The authoruities say that with this new facility, the continuous and uninterrupted supply of oxygen would be ensured and only a few oxygen cylinders would be stored for emergency situations.

SPORTS

Governor receives Indo-Pak Punjab Games torch 
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, December 3
The torch of the first ever Indo-Pak Punjab Games–2004 was handed over to Gen S.F. Rodrigues, Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, at 4 pm today. On this occasion a function was organised at Punjab Raj Bhavan and it was attended by various current and former sportspersons. The torch-bearing contingent was led by Olympic shooter Abhinav Bindra, international rowers Gurpreet Kaur, Gurnoor Kang and host of former sportspersons like Rana Gurmit Sodhi, Gurbir Sandhu, Raja K.S. Sidhu, T.S. Bawa, Satish Bhatia, Nirmaljit Singh, Sumati Kanwar and Suman Malhan. Other sportspersons who attended the function were Raja Malwinder Singh, P.S. Aujla, ADGP Punjab, T.C. Gupta, Vice- Chairman, Games Technical Conduct Committee, Ravinder Talwar, Secretary, Chandigarh Olympic Association. The wife of Governor was also present on the occasion.

The governor later interacted with the players and dignitaries. He said such events act as a cementing force for strengthening the ties of friendship, harmony and brotherhood between the people of different cultures and regions.

He hoped that the proposed Indo-Pak Punjab Games–2004 would help in promoting peace and harmony in the region. The torch also marked the beginning of the historic Indo-Pak Punjab Games being held in Patiala. The torch would stay in Punjab Raj Bhavan for night and would be flagged off by the Governor tomorrow at 9.30 am for its onward journey to Patiala.

Earlier, the torch was received at Mohali Shooting Range.

St Kabir lift ICL trophy
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 3
St Kabir School, Sector 26, Chandigarh, outplayed St John’s High School, Sector 26, by two wickets to win the First ICL Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament in below-14 section in Sector 4, Panchkula, today.

Batting first, St John’s scored 110 runs for the loss of eight wickets with Arun Chadha and Vikram claiming four and two wickets respectively. In reply, St Kabir lost first three wickets quickly but Vijay Partap and Arun Chadha batted consistently and achieved the target in 29.1 overs with two wickets in hand.

Mr Surinder Singh, Secretary of the Chandigarh Cricket Association, gave away the prizes.

Brief scores: St John’s: 110 runs for eight in 30 overs (Vikram Talwar 52, Vidur 12, Arun Chadha 4 for 12, Vikram 2 for 19).

St Kabir:112 runs for eight in 29.1 overs (Vijay Pratap 21, Arun Chadha 29, Akarshit 19, Angad 2 for 22).

Basketball tourney

Tender Heart School, Sector 33, will meet St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, in the boys’ final of the ICSE Schools Basketball Tournament. In the semi-finals, Tender Heart beat St Xavier’s, Panchkula, 66-04 while St Stephen’s downed St Kabir’s, Sector 26, 44-06. In the girls’ section, Little Flower School, Panchkula, defeated Tender Heart, Sector 33, 14-03.

Selection trials

Selection trials for new girl trainees for Sports Training Centre, Sector 18, of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) will be held from December 13 to 15 in athletics, basketball, hockey and volleyball.

The girls in the age group 14-18 years with outstanding sports background will be eligible to take part. The SAI will provide free board and lodging besides kit, medical aid, insurance cover to the selected players. The players are required to report at 11am on December 13 at Sector 18 centre, Government Senior Model Secondary School, Sector 18.

Sports fest concludes

A three-day sports festival of Saupin’s School, Sector 32, concluded on the school premises on Friday. The children of UKG performed various drill and also took part in athletic events, including 25-m race, frog race, obstacle race in both boys’ and girls’ section.

Inayat clinches CLTA Open Tennis title
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 3
Samin Bhargava will take on Rahul Adhikari in the tomorrow’s under-10 boys final of CLTA Open Tennis Tournament being organized at tennis stadium, Sector 10, here. Inayat Khosla won ladies singles title by defeating Alipt Sandhu in three sets.

Today’s results:

Men’s singles (quarter-finals):

Jitin Bishnoi b Manjit Singh 8-3; Prabhjot Singh b Navinder Pal Singh 8-3; Akash Sharma b Rajkanwar Singh 8-3.

Men’s doubles (semi-finals):

Robin Kumar and Akash Sharma b Izreek Singh and Prabhjot Singh 6-7(13), 6-0, 6-2.

Girls under-14 (semi-finals):

Ramneek Rihal b Qudrat Paul 7-6(4), 6-2; Ankita Singh b Noor Paul 6-3, 6-4.

Boys under-14 (quarter-final):

Amit Chauhan b Harry Singh Amor 8-0; Parul Verma b Vishal Suri 8-0; Chandam Shaolin b Akshat Joshi 8-3.

Boys under-10 (semi-finals):

Samin Bhargava b Arjun Mehra 9-4; Rahul Adhikari b Anmol Singh Bains 8-4.

Ladies (semi-finals):

Inayat Khosla b Ankita Singh 6-1,6-0; Alipt Sandhu b Bahar Paul 6-3,3-6,6-3.

Ladies (finals):

Inayat Khosla b Alipt Sandhu 1-6,6-4,6-0.

PU athletics meet

Pooja of MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, Chandigarh, and Pawandeep Kaur of GGS College for Women, Chandigarh, on Friday bagged gold medal, in long jump and 110 m hurdles respectively on the second day of the Panjab University Inter-College Athletics meet being organised on the campus grounds.

In today’s events, various gold medal winners were: Men: Pargat Singh of GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sudhar (hammer throw), Vikas of DAV College, Sector 10 (5000m), Amritpal Singh of GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sudhar (discus throw), Lakhwinder Singh of the SGGS, Chandigarh (javelin throw) and Sarbjot Singh of KLSD College, Ludhiana (110-m hurdles).

Women: Akwinder Kaur of AS College, Khanna (high jump), Iqbal Kaur of GGS College for Women, Chandigarh (5000m) and Pawandeep Kaur of GGS College for Women, Chandigarh (100-m hurdles).

Squash team

A six-member Chandigarh squash team will take part in Senior National Squash and Inter-State Championship to be held at Chennai from December 8 to 11. The team comprises Puneet Singh (captain), Ishaan Wadhera, Pranab Sharma, Abhay Sood, Bhavneet Sachdev and Sanampreet Sekhon.

Ball badminton teams

Abhineet Sharma and Shivani will lead UT ball badminton teams for the 50th Junior National Golden Jubilee Ball Badminton Championship to be held at Hassan, Karnataka, from December 8 to 12.

The teams are (boys) Abhineet, Ankur, Manoj, Tushar, Himanshu, Amandeep, Chetan, Vaibhab, Gurinder and Manish. (girls) Shivani, Seema, Renu, Neetika, Nishi, Shikha, Prerna, Lovleen, Tanuja and Vandana.

Annual sports day

The annual sports day function of the St Mary’s School, Sector 46, was held on Friday on the school premises. Children took part in various sport events.

The chief guest, Rev Father KJ Thomas, Director, Roshni Charitable Society, Rajpura, distributed prizes amon the winners. He also asked the children to lay stress on sports along with studies.

ADMINISTRATION

Schedule of holidays for Central govt staff released
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 3
The Central Government Employees Welfare Coordination Committee (CGEWCC) today finalised the schedule of gazetted holidays for the central government employees working in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali.

At a meeting here, it was also decided to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of Mr LK Puri, Chief Post Master General, Punjab Circle, to look into the working of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) dispensary here. It was demanded that the government employees should be allowed to avail direct benefits from super-speciality hospitals, including the PGI, as the CGHS dispensary lacked basic infrastructure.

The committee also urged the Chandigarh Administration to transfer an “underutilised” building for the starting of the Central Service Officers Institute (CSIO), the committee secretary, Mr Yash Pal Bhagat, informed.

Meanwhile, the following is the list of gazetted holidays for government staff: Id-ul-Zuha (January 21), Republic Day (January 26), Muharram (February 20), Shivaratri (March 8), Good Friday (March 25), Baisakhi (April 13), Mahavir Jayanti (April 22), and Milad-ul-Nabi (April 22).

Buddha Purnima (May 23), Independence Day (August 15), Janamashtami (August 26), Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (October 2), Dasehra (October 12), Divali (November 1), Id-ul-Fitr (November 4), Guru Nanak’s birthday (November 15) and Christmas (December 25) will be other holidays.