HEALTH

Autism more prevalent among boys: doc
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5
If your child does not smile often, avoids social interaction, is detached from his fellow beings or vies for loneliness, do not pass it off as any of his occasional mood swings. For, these can be the symptoms of autism, a common developmental disorder, which can affect the child at the time of its birth or has its onset till he is one and a half years old.

“Autism is a spectrum disorder because the severity of the symptoms ranges from a mild learning and social disability to a severe impairment, which multiplies problems and highly unusual behaviour," says Dr Lakshmi Parsanna, president of the Anthroposophical Medical Society, India Chapter, Hyderabad, in city to deliver a special lecture today.

Contrary to the general perception, autism is not a rare disorder, neither is it caused by increased stress levels of the parents or passed on from a depressed expecting mother to her newborn child. But the expert says that no one can cause a child to become autistic but the cause lies in “leaky gut”, which allows the toxins to get into the blood stream, leading to “starvation of brain”, which results in autism.

“Around 0.2 per cent of the children are autistic and this incidence rate holds true for any population, race or country. However, boys are found to be suffering more from the disorder as 80 per cent of the cases are that of the male child,” says Dr Lakshmi.

However, no exact reason for this highly skewed incidence rate is known so far, points out the doctor.

Meanwhile, the doctors themselves agree that the diagnosis of the disorder can be highly tricky for the experts themselves as the correct detection of the disorder requires a sensitive and experienced doctor who observes the child carefully.

X-ray machine inaugurated
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5
An X-ray machine with high frequency generator, and 3-D ceiling was inaugurated at the GMCH, Sector 32, yesterday. Director Principal of GMCH Prof H.M. Swami inaugurated the machine, which ensures minimal exposure of radiation for the patients.

Head of Department of Radiology, Prof Suman Kochhar was also present on the occasion. 

SPORTS

5 fancied players bow out of ITF qualifiers
Our Sports Reporter

Deepanshu to lead city hockey team
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, February 5
Deepanshu will lead the city team in the Sub-Junior National (Under-16) Hockey Championship to be held at Imphal from February 20 to 28.

The team is: Deepanshu (captain), Pritpal Singh, Gurneet Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Anil Kumar, Samsher Singh, Sukhbir Singh, Harsh Chaudhary, Surjit Singh, Harnek Singh, Jaspreet Singh, Manpreet Singh, Samsher Singh, Sukhbir Singh and Sukhbir Singh. Jaswinder Singh will be the coach, while Tarlochan Singh will be the manager.

Amartex cricket

The Bharat Cricket Club registered a five-wicket win over High Court Employees XI in the Amartex Cup Cricket Tournament in a tie played here at the JR Institute of Cricket Technology, Barwala.

After winning the toss, High Court Employees XI opted to bat first. They were bundled out for 144 runs in 42 overs. In reply, Bharat CC achieved the target with five wickets in hand.

Brief scores: High Court Employees XI: 144 all out in 42 overs (Vikram Sharma 43, Vikas Soni 27, Sandeep Gulati 42, Vineet Jain 4 for 32, Rajiv Bhardwaj 2 for 32, Girish Bhanot 2 for 22).

Bharat CC: 145 for five in 33.4 overs (Jai Kapil 56 n.o., Sunny Sohal 46).

Cricket tourney

Rahul Joshi played a superb knock of 72 runs and helped HFCL Infotel XI beat AirTel BIL XI by 155 runs in a Pool B match in the second Punjab Telecom Operators Friendship Cricket Cup Tournament here on Saturday. The tournament is being held at the Panchkula Sector 3 Cricket Stadium in the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex.

Brief scores: HFCL Infotel XI: 220 for 5 in 25 overs (Rahul Joshi 72, Arun Madan 31, Deepak Gill 29, Haresh Goel 16, Gourav Jain 17, Pardeep 2 for 23, Harmeet 2 for 8).

AirTel BIL XI: 75 all out in 15.1 overs (Sukhjeet 10, Mohit 3 for 4, Rakesh 2 for 3,Arun Madan 2 for 6).

Spice XI: 192 for 9 in 25 overs (Miltin 61, Hemant 45, Vivek Pathania 12, Aditya Kaushik 2 for 43).Ericsson XI: 71 all out in 18.2 overs (Ashwini 18, Nilesh 11, Madan Dogra 3 for 26, Vivek Pathania for 2 for 21).

Tae kwon do meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, February 5
Doon Public School, Sector 21, Panchkula, was declared overall champion for winning maximum number of medals in the Panchkula Inter-School Tae kwon do Tournament held here on Saturday.

Principal Sanjay Anand of the host school was the chief guest.

He gave away the prizes to the winners.

Winners in different weight categories are, Mukul, Shakti Sen, Gurmantar, Gagandeep, Harkeerat, Vishwa Prem, Shivam, Sunil Kumar, Ankush, Dhruv, Monu, Pardeep, Inderbir Singh, Prashant Sharma, Deepansha, Anu Jain and Shefali Sharma.

ADMINISTRATION

Kaushal takes over as Punjab Chief Architect
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5
Former head of the architectural wing of the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) and the Punjab Police Housing Corporation, S.L. Kaushal has taken over as the Chief Architect of 
Punjab.

Mr Kaushal has been instrumental in designing various important buildings in the country. These included the District Administrative Complex at Bathinda, PUDA Bhavans and community centres at Patiala, Ludhiana and SAS Nagar, City Park at SAS Nagar, the “B” Block of the Punjab Bhavan, New Delhi and “Shan-e-Hind” gate at the Indo-Pak border in Hussainiwala.

An alumnus of Chandigarh College of Architecture, Mr Kaushal joined the Department of Architecture in 1979. Before joining the department, he worked at Panjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

He is the vice-chairman of the Chandigarh and Punjab chapter of the Indian Institute of Architects. Besides, he is also a member of the Board of Studies of Panjab University.