The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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R E G I O N A L B R I E F S

Regional potpourri

Honour for research in children’s diseases
ENT surgeon with urge to serve poor

PUNJAB

CHANDIGARH
I-Day function: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will unfurl the national flag at a state-level function in Ludhiana on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, an official press note said here on Sunday.

Sangat Darshan cancelled: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will not hold Sangat Darshan at his residence on August 12 and 19 due to his prescheduled engagements. This was disclosed by advisor to Chief Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema here on Sunday.

GURDASPUR
21 widows given free ration: The local unit of the Chinmaya Mission on Sunday distributed ration to 21 widows free of cost by organising a special function here. Hira Lal Arora, who heads the unit, in a press note said former education minister Khushal Behl, who presided over the function, made an appeal to people to come forward to help those who belonged to downtrodden section of society.

Plea to NGOs: Transport minister Mohan Lal has urged non-governmental and other social organisations to play an active role in eradicating corruption and other evils from society. The minister said this at a function organised by the local chapter of the Rotary Club in connection with the installation ceremony of its new president Sanjiv Sarpal. Gurbachan Singh, MLA, Gurdaspur, was also present.

Hoshiarpur
Green Drive: More than 500 students of 10 government schools took part in the Vanmahotsav organised by an NGO Hukran Brothers at Navodaya School Falahi here on Saturday. The event was also attended by the sarpanches of the nearby villages. Chief guest and deputy director Sarav Sikhyia Abhiyan Avtar Singh the students must be made aware about the environmental issues.

Jalandhar
Office-bearers: Rakesh Kumar has been elected president of employees federation of Punjab State Electricity Board in a meeting held here under the supervision of circle president Balwinder Singh. Davinder Kumar, Munish Khanna, Sharanjit Singh and Radha Raman were elected as vice-president, secretary, assistant secretary and cashier, respectively.

Kapurthala
Annual function: GOC 11 Corps Lieutenant General SS Kumar honoured the outstanding students of Army Public School, Beas during its annual prize distribution function held in its campus today. Lieutenant General SS Kumar, also the patron of the school, attended the function as chief guest.

Morinda
250 examined at eye camp: The Grewal Eye Institute (GEI) in association with the Youth Welfare Club, Morinda, conducted an eye camp here today. A team of ophthalmologists from the GEI, led by Dr SPS Grewal conducted the camp at the rural dispensary. Around 250 patients, suffering from diseases like glaucoma, cataract etc. benefited from the free eye camp. Speaking at the camp, Haripal, president, Youth Welfare Club, and Pawan Dhiman, project chairman of the Youth Welfare Club thanked the doctors.

PATIALA
BEd results declared: Punjabi University, Patiala, has declared the result of BEd. Giving this information, co-ordinator, Examinations, Dr Gurmail Singh said students could see their result on the university website www.punjabiuniversity.ac.in from Monday evening.

Play presented: The National Theatre Arts Society on Sunday presented a play “Kul Bartaant” at Veer Haqiqat Rai Senior Secondary School as a part of their Tiranga Theatre Fortnight. The play which was adapted and presented in Punjabi by Pran Sabharwal and Sunita Sabharwal was witnessed by 1500 students, teachers and staff members of Veer Haqiqat Rai Senior Secondary School. Prof Harinder Sharma, president of Veer Haqiqat Rai Sanatan Dharam Sabha lauded the efforts of Pran Sabharwal and presented a cheque of Rs 3100 to the society.

SANGRUR
20 bank branches honoured: Malwa Gramin Bank (MGB), a regional rural bank with its head office at Sangrur, honoured 20 of its branches for the financial year 2007-08 here on Saturday. Assistant general manager, State Bank of Patiala, K.S. Sandhu was the chief guest, while chairman, MGB, Ajit Singh presided. Spokesman Pali Ram Bansal said here on Sunday, in addition to the financial incentives, appreciation letters and mementoes were also given to the 20 branches, which included Pakhon Kalan (Barnala), Saholi (Patiala), Bhagrana (Fatehgarh Sahib).

Zirakpur
Two children hurt in mishap: Two children, Gaurav (10) and Ravi (8), were injured when the bicycle they were riding was hit by a CTU bus going from Ambala to Chandigarh here today. The children were going from their house in Bhagat Singh colony to a local temple to have langar. Both sustained injuries and were admitted to hospital.

HARYANA

Kaithal
Cong rally: The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) will organise a rally at Kurukshetra on August 21. HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana and working president Kuldeep Sharma in a meeting held here on Sunday said general secretary of the All-India Congress Committee ,Margret Alva, would be the chief guest.

REWARI
1 held for duping: The police has arrested Bhim Singh Sharma, a resident of the Gulabi Bagh colony here, for allegedly duping a youth, Balraj, a resident of Ramgarh Bhagwanpur village, of Rs 1.40 lakh in July, promising recruitment in the Army. The police said Bhim Singh was arrested, however, his son and daughter-in-law managed to escape. The police had registered a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B and 34 of the IPC.

School renamed: Government Senior Secondary School, Guriani, was formally named Babu Balmukund Gupt Senior Secondary School by state education and transport minister Mange Ram Gupta at Guriani village, near Kosli, on Saturday. Babu Bal Mukund Gupt, a native of Guriani village, was a journalist, robust satirist and an epoch-making Hindi writer of the last quarter of the 19th century. The minister said eight electric fans would soon be installed in various rooms.

6 booked for dowry harassment: The Khol police has booked a man Jitender, his father Daya Nand, mother Savit and three others, all residents of Nathera village near Kosli, on the charges of dowry harassment and criminal intimidation. A case has been registered against them on a directive issued by a local court that had been petitioned by Mamta, daughter of Jaswant Singh of Pali village near Khol. Mamta (21), who married to Jitender in 2006, had alleged that owing to her parents’ failure to meet the dowry demand, she was ill-treated by her in-laws.

SONEPAT
Coordinator appointed: The core committee of the state unit of the BJP appointed former minister Ram Bilas Sharma as coordinator of the state-level election campaign committee at its meeting held here on Saturday. In the meeting, which was presided over by the state president, Atam Prakash Manchanda, a three-member committee of state general secretary Kanwar Pal, former state president RatanLal Kataria and state media coordinator Rajiv Jain, was constituted to suggest the election issues for campaign during the next Lok Sabha elections.

3 gangsters held: The Sonepat police has arrested three gangsters while they were planning to loot vehicles on the Rathdhana-Bahalgarh road near Libaspur village on Saturday night. They have been identified as Dharambir, alias Kala, of Nangal Kalan village, Mahipal, alias Billa, and Sunil of Saboli village. The police has seized a revolver, cartridge and knife from their possession. The alleged have confessed their involvement in looting of two canters.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

BILASPUR
Folk artiste dead: A prominent folk artiste, Sant Ram Chabba (70), who was a popular social worker and a former home guards officer died at his home at Diara sector here on Sunday morning. He was ill since few days and was rushed to Snowdon hospital at Shimla but could not recover. He was father of a journalist Kul bhushan Chabba.

Appeal to donate: The Himachal Pradesh State Non-Gazetted Employees’ Federation has expressed grief over the death of a large number of devotees in a stampede at the Naina Devi shrine. Ram Singh, president of the state federation, and Dalip Bhatia, state secretary general, said here on Wednesday that a two-minute silence was observed at a meeting of the federation in memory of the victims. The state federation also adopted a resolution urging all employees in the state to donate liberally to the Chief Minister’s relief fund.

CHAMBA
'Beware of communal forces’: Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress president Man Mohan Katoch has asked party activists and the masses to beware of communal forces in the country. Addressing a convention of Youth Congress activists and leaders Sunday, he said these divisive forces were spoiling the communal harmony of the country.

Body found: The body of a woman had been recovered from the banks of the river Ravi, near Bagga, about 25 km from here on Saturday evening.The police had sent the body for post-mortem, the report said.The body had been identified as Kusum Devi who had been killed in an accident.

MANDI
Girl found dead: The police found a body of the 12-year-old Nepali girl on Sunday, who was washed away by Tirthan river, near Banjar, in Kullu while playing on shore of the Pandoh dam three days ago near here. The body was identified by her parents as they had lodged an FIR in the case.

NURPUR
Ayurvedic docs’ plea: The state Unemployed Ayurvedic Doctors Association expressed gratitude to chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for creating 150 posts of ayurvedic doctors and appointing fifty per cent through a batch wise system and rest through the state public service commission.It has urged to grant relaxation in the upper age limit in the appointments made through the batch wise system.

Regional potpourri
Honour for research in children’s diseases

Dr Anupam Sachdeva has been awarded “Silver Jubilee Research Award Category I” by President Pratibha Patil, for his research in the field of paediatrics haematology oncology and bone marrow transplant. He is in charge , Paediatrics Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.

Dr Anupam Sachdeva receives an award from President Pratibha Patil.

This is the highest award for clinical research given by the Medical Council of India and it has been conferred on only 16 persons before this in 50 years. He will get cash award of Rs 1 lakh and a citation.

This award will be given to him for devotion to medical research, achievements of two decades and raising dedicated research team in paediatrics in 1992 in the field of blood disorders. Dr Sachdeva made efforts to transform small set-up in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to its present national and international eminence and repute, in the field of childhood cancers and blood disorders.

Born at Amritsar Dr Sachdeva did his graduation in medicine in 1983 from Amritsar Medical College and doctorate in paediatrics from Dayanand Medical College in 1987. He started his career in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Subsequently he trained at Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, London. From the day he was awarded medical degree till today , he has been striving to keep abreast of developments in paediatric oncology and haematology.

Dr Sachdeva has been a pioneer in the field and has several research contributions, of which his work on childhood blood cancers has been acclaimed internationally. He has lectured at many international fora to share his experiences besides publishing over 50 articles in national and international journals of repute.

Dr Sachdeva was also awarded Dr B.C. Roy award by the former President, Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam for his contribution to the development of paediatric oncology and haematology in India besides receiving national and international awards.

ENT surgeon with urge to serve poor

Dr Sanjay Sachdeva director, ENT, head and neck surgery, Fortis Healthcare New Delhi, did MBBS in 1980, and MS ( ENT ) in 1986 from Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. He specialises in septal, cartilage, homograft and costal cartilage homograft in cases of saddle nose deformity.

Dr Sanjay Sachdeva examines a patient at a camp in Kangra.

He was invited as operating faculty in Chennai in 1995 by the Association of Paediatric ENT, India and to lecture on ENT in Dubai, Dhaka and Nepal.and operate as faculty surgeon with international faculty.

Dr Sachdeva attended endoscopy and laser course at Tyronne County Hospital (UK) and was trained at Cochlear Transplant International Centre , Australia, in cochlear transplant surgery for snoring. He started voice clinic and sinus clinics at Apollo hospital, New Delhi.

The Association of Otolaryngology of India has honoured him for holding workshops, performing live surgery and presenting papers at national and international conferences.

Dr Sachdeva co-authored a book on endoscopic sinus surgery with Prof S.K.Kaluskar from the United Kingdom. He also co-authored a book for lay people on common ENT problems . The National Book Trust of India published it.

At the first SAARC ENT conference in February 1998 at Dhaka, Bangladesh, he presented a paper on endoscope- assisted nasal surgery "Advance in Pituitary Surgery" at College of Physicians and surgeons (BCPS) Dhaka . It was appreciated. Recipient of more than 50 national and international awards for contribution to medical science he was awarded certificate of service by the Lions Club for his services in Rural Health Scheme.

Despite engagements in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and other cities of the world Dr Sachdeva has urge to serve the rural poor.

Under the aegis of the Vivekananda Kendra, Kanya Kumari and Shri Repudaman Charitable Trust at Kangra in Himachal he has been treating people of villages every month free of cost and even operating on them free in Dr R.P.Govenment Medical College Hospital.

He feels a lot needs to be done for poor people of our country " We cannot afford to waste time as the poor need our service and we should do it."

Dr Sachdeva arrives in the morning by bus along with equipment and continues treating people of this hill state till evening and catches a bus for Delhi without a sign of fatigue. He is 'nishkam karamyogi' full of humility.

Contributed by Ashok Sethi and Ashok Raina