Chronic mental illness behind suicides?
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17
While the news of the suicide of the Sector 15 family is making rounds of the entire city, the act is also being investigated from other angles. According to Dr BS Chavan, Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, there could various possibilities which prompted the members to commit suicide keeping in mind the circumstantial evidence available.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Chavan said that the possibility of chronic mental illness cannot be ruled out. He added that the unhygienic living conditions, lack of social activity, extreme religiosity and superstition also indicate that the members could have been suffering from schizophrenia. "A schizophrenic tends to become withdrawn, turn suspicious and over religious and stops talking to others,’’ said Dr Chavan.

He informed that though the members may be suffering from depression, it is quite unlikely that all of them suffered from a similar problem or impulse at the same moment. Also the depression history of the members has to known before coming to any conclusion, added Dr Chavan.

It was reported that the house of the deceased was in an extremely dirty state. In addition, there were marks of gayatri mantra, books of sad songs, pigeons in the backyard and a number of tranquillisers and other medicines. A team comprising counsellors and doctors has been constituted by Dr Chavan who would visit the relatives of the deceased and look into various medical aspects of the suicide.

Meanwhile, this year till the month of October, 56 persons have committed suicide in Chandigarh as against 90 in 2004 and 103 in 2003. The maximum number of suicides have occurred in the month of August this year.

Paramedics’ union holds protest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17
Members of the class III Para-Medical Union of Government Hospital, Sector 16, today staged a dharna on the hospital premises. The dharna was supported by members of the sweepers’ union, class IV union and the nurses union of the hospital.

Raising slogans against the hospital authorities and the Medical Superintendent, the members protested that even after two months none of their approved demands had been implemented by the Medical Superintendent.

According to Rocky Daniel, general secretary of the union, a charter of demands was submitted to the Director, Health Services, Ms Inderjit Kaur Walia, who had accepted all of them. The general secretary added that of the 16 demands, six were to be implemented by Ms Usha Bhishnoi, Medical Superintendent.

However, even after two months none of them had been implemented, rued the members.

During the dharna the members opposed the practice of making the technical staff of the office perform the function of the cashier. Similarly, they protested against the fact that the pharmacists employed in the hospital were being made to prepare the patient cards.

The general secretary stated that a meeting with the Medical Superintendent was scheduled for tomorrow. He added that if their demands were not implemented at the earliest than the members would go on strike.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Dr Dash
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17
With over 270 research publications, 500 research communications, 16 oration awards, Professor R.J. Dash, Former Head of the Department of Endocrinology , PGIMER, has been recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in Endocrinology from the Endocrine Society of India. The award was given to him at the 35th Annual Conference of the society held at New Delhi.

Dr Dash is the first DM in Endocrinology in India and he had established the first hormone-assay laboratory using indigenously developed reagents.

He has also trained over 70 super specialists in this field .

Dr Dash is also visiting professor in 30 universities around the world.

Move to scrap health scheme opposed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17
The coordination committee of the Central Government Pensioners Associations has opposed the move by the government to disband the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).

Despite certain loopholes, the CGHS was the best health scheme for government employees and pensioners,” it said. Apart from demanding the continuation of the health scheme, two more CGHS dispensaries in Chandigarh and one each in Mohali and Panchkula have been sought. Thousands of Central government employees and retirees avail the CGHS facility at the Sector 45 dispensary.

The move by the government was initiated after reports about poor emergency services and non-availability of medicines.

2 dengue patients in PGI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17
Two new dengue cases from Panchkula and Kaithal were today admitted to PGIMER. While the patient from Panchkula, a 23-year-old female, has been confirmed for dengue, the second patient, a five-year-old male child is still a suspected case. So far two cases of dengue from Panchkula have been admitted to PGI.

Rural sports meet begins at Makrana Kalan
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service

Morinda, November 17
The best of rural sports was showcased at the annual two-day Shaheed Baba Balkara Singh Yaadgari Sports Tournament, which started with much fanfare at Makrana Kalan, 20 km from here, today. In the tournament being organised by the Makrana Kalan Panchayat for over 100 years, competition in only three events — wrestling, kabaddi and bullock-cart race — are held every year.

Today, the day began with the popular, adventurous and spine thrilling event, the bullock-cart race. In front of thousands spectators, the riders showed their racing skills on the 250 metre track to win laurels as well as cash awards.

The event was divided into two categories ‘kheera’ and ‘dugga’. The young bulls which have only baby teeth fall in ‘kheera’ category whereas the bulls having only two permanent teeth along with baby teeth fall in the ‘dugga’ section.

At the end of the day, the bulls of Ranjit Singh of Kainaur village made him proud, as he won the top honours as well as Rs 3100 in cash from among 39 contestants. Gurnam Singh of Badla and Bela Singh of Dehlon village won the second (Rs 2700) and third (Rs 2300) slots, respectively. Besides, the next eight carts also got the consolation prizes.

Tomorrow, renowned grapplers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Delhi will participate in the open wrestling competitions. Besides wrestling, the circle kabaddi in the open category will also take place at the same venue.

St Xavier’s Club win in football
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 17
The seventh Chandigarh Senior Girls Football Championship for the Deepak Kapania Trophy began here today at the Sector 17 football stadium. In the opening tie, St Xavier’s club, Sector 44 blanked St Stephen’s Club-’B’ by three goals to nil. They also earned three valuable points. The meet was inaugurated by Mr Ravinder Talwar, President Chandigarh Football Association.

The first goal of the day in 10th minute was scored by Sarita. She collected a cross from right winger Manpreet and beat the rival custodian with an angular shot. St. Stephen’s girls tried hard to equalise but missed two golden chances. St. Stephen’s girls conceded the second goal in 21st minute while the scorer was right winger Manpreet who scored the second goal with a solo efforts. The half time score was 2-0 in favour of St Xavier’s Club.

After the lemon break, St Xavier’s Club added the third goal in the 41st minute and the scorer was left- half Mandeep who scored the third goal with a powerful shot.

Mongia to lead Punjab cricket team
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 17
Dinesh Mongia has been appointed skipper of the 15-member Punjab cricket team as announced by the Punjab Cricket Association. The team was selected after the camp which concluded yesterday. As per the press note of the PCA, the association has kept 15 players for the first two Ranji Trophy matches to be played against Services from November 23 to 26 and Haryana from December 1 to 4 at Mohali. Mr Intikhab Alam, former captain and coach of Pakistan team and now coach of Punjab team, will be the manager. Mr Sandeep Sanwal will assist him. Dr T. Pavan Kumar is the physio-cum-trainer attached with the team.

The team: Dinesh Mongia (captain), Reetinder Sodhi (vice-captain), Pankaj Dharmani, Gagandeep Singh, Ankur Kakkar, Ravneet Ricky, Munish Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Navdeep Singh, Amit Uniyal, Gaurav Gupta, Vineet Sharma, Bipul Sharma, Ishan Malhotra and Loveabhilish.

Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh have not been considered as they are already performing national duty while VRV Singh has to be rested due to non recovery from the injury.

UT table tennis meet results
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 17
Nadia Saini, Vikas Sharma, Dheeraj Arora and Gurvinder Kaur all shared two titles each at the end of the 18th Chandigarh State Table Tennis meet played here today at the Sector 23 TT hall.

In the women’s singles event, it was young Nadia who disposed of Gurvinder Kaur in straight sets with the score being 11-3, 11-9, 11-3. She later won the doubles title in partnership with Gurvinder Kaur by beating Meghna and Bhawna at 3-1 with scores being 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 11-3.

The men’s doubles title was grabbed by Dheeraj Arora who downed Harish Kumar and Vikas Sharma at 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-9. The mixed doubles title went in favour of Vikas and Gurvinder who got the better of Dheeraj Arora and Nadia Saini in a thriller match with scores being 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9.

Mr DS Kalha, IAS and president of the Chandigarh Table Tennis Association who was the chief guest, gave away the prizes.

Cricket trials
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 17
Trials to select the Ropar cricket team in the under-16 section for the Sushil Bali Cricket Trophy will be held at Government College cricket ground, Ropar, on November 20 at 11 am on the college premises.

This was stated by Mr Sandeep Budhiraja, spokesperson of the association.