The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Punjab’s tepid fight against breast cancer
Amaninder Pal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 27
Though advertisements, programme promotions and announcements of the Health and Family Welfare Department capture space in the print media at short intervals, the ground reality is pretty different than the rosy picture projected at large.

A reality check into the state of affairs of the department reveals that it fails to provide even the basic infrastructure - to deal with a life-threatening disease like breast cancer.

Machines at Jalandhar, Patiala and Hoshiarpur “safely” locked behind doors
Patients pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 at private hospitals for what can be had at Rs 700 in a government institute

The Tribune was greeted with shocking results when it conducted a survey about the number and functioning of mammography machines installed in government hospitals in the state. Despite the fact that the number of hospitals, both at the district and subdivisional levels is 60, only four mammography machines have been installed by the Punjab Health System Corporation at the civil hospitals in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur, Patiala and Bathinda. But only one of these machines, which were manufactured by Italian firm Picoini and marketed by Villa India, is in a working condition.

The mammography machines, installed only a few years back in Jalandhar, Patiala and Hohiarpur, lie “safely” stored behind locked doors of obscure rooms.

As per information, the machine at the civil hospitals in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur have been non-operational for the past about two years.

Mata Kaushalya Hospital, Patiala, which provides only maternal and child care, has been running without a mammography machine since December 2006.

This forces patients to get their mammography done in private centres.

Lack of vision in the Health Department, to control the disease, can be gauged from the fact that no mammography machine, which costs around Rs 15 to 20 lakh, has been installed as yet in any of the three government medical colleges of the state.

This leads to poor skills among the postgraduate students from the radiology departments of these institutes to perform mammography accurately. A rich experience is required to carry out “grading and staging” to know the extent of breast cancer.

Interestingly, the criterion of the installation of mammography machines doesn’t give any clue about specified norms, according to which machines were installed, as the bed capacity of all three hospitals in Jalandhar, Bathinda and Patiala differ markedly from the civil hospital, Hoshiarpur.

Not even a single machine has been installed in Malwa despite the fact that the prevalence and mortality rate of every type of cancer is the highest in this region.

Recent studies have proved that the mortality rate of breast cancer can be brought down by as much as 75 per cent if screening techniques like mammography are used.

Dr Manjeet Singh, cancer specialist, formerly posted at the AIIMS, said, “We usually find breast cancer in around 30 per cent of high risk patients (where breast cancer runs in families).

Ideally, every woman after the age of 45 should get her screening done after an interval of every two years.

“With mammography, we can detect breast cancer at the initial stages when the disease is 90 per cent curable, added Dr Singh.

It is important to note that out of every one lakh women around 19 are affected with breast cancer and out of 19, 14 die due to the disease.

SAD, BJP councillors threaten protest against SSP
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 27
Councillors of the ruling combine yesterday threatened to protest against Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh who refused to meet and entertain them after they sought a meeting with him.

Mandeep Singh Manna, general secretary, Youth Akali Dal, who was leading the delegation of councillors, alleged that they had sought a meeting with the SSP over certain alleged false cases registered against him. However, after waiting for more than an hour, the SSP did not called them and refused to entertain them when they again tried to contact him over the phone.

However, the SSP, when contacted, said that Manna was facing criminal charges of fraud in certain cases and how he could allow a person with criminal charges to enter his office premises. He said he would also not entertain any person supporting a man facing criminal charges. He said the Police Department sent summons to Manna in a case of fraud registered at Kotwali police station which he refused to take. Meanwhile, Manna said the councillors and the Youth Akali Dal would agitate against the SSP and the district administration on Tuesday.

Bhagat Singh Birth Anniversary
Khatkar Kalan pours out lamentations
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, September 27
A large number of people converged on Khatkar Kalan to pay floral tributes to great martyr Bhagat Singh to mark his birth anniversary on Sunday, thanks to the cultural programme organised by the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Cultural Club, in which a galaxy of Punjabi folk singers gave their performances.

Moreover, as there was no official function to commemorate the birth anniversary of the martyr, lack of security checks facilitated people to have an easy access to the Shaheedi Smarak to pay tributes to the martyrs.

Village sarpanch Gurmail Ram, while talking to the media, expressed his resentment that though the Central government had released a coin at a function organised at Khatkar Kalan last year to commemorate the birth centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, till now the commemorative coin had not come in circulation.

“The state government and political parties have been organising conferences at Khatkar Kalan to pay tributes to the martyrs on the occasion of martyrdom day. They have just been using the occasion to make false promises as well as to spit venom on their political rivals,” lamented the sarpanch, adding that there was lack of upkeep of the park set up near the ancestral house of the martyr though claims to develop Khatkar Kalan into a touring spot were being made.

Chaudhary Mohan Lal, MLA, Kashmira Singh Nihang, Kiranjit Singh, nephew of the martyr, Vikram Aditya, son of Union minister Virbhadra Singh, Angad Singh, son of former MLA Parkash Singh, Baljinder Mangat, president, Akhil Bharatiya Hind Suraksha Youth Sangram Democratic Parishad, among others, paid tributes to the martyrs.

YC factions rally separately

Nawanshahr, September 27
Though during his recent visit, Rahul Gandhi had exhorted the Youth Congress workers to unitedly fight the atrocities of the SAD-BJP regime as well as to highlight the failures of the Punjab government among masses, the Youth Congress here, it seems, is too faction-ridden to practically implement the visionary project to metamorphose itself into the “aam aadmi ke sipahi” brigade.

Instead of launching concerted efforts to realise the dreams of their “yuvraj”, the local Youth Congress workers are busy fighting among themselves. Busy in organising separate show-of-strength programmes, strengthening the Youth Congress at the grass-roots level is an issue they are not interested to bother themselves with at the moment.

This was evident from the fact that the Youth Congress workers here organised separate rallies to pay tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh to mark his birth anniversary.

The Youth Congress workers, led by Angad Singh, son of former Parliamentary Secretary Parkash Singh, today gathered at Baradari Garden. Vikram Aditaya, son of Virbhadra Singh, Union minister and former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, was specially invited to participate in the rally as well as to motivate Youth Congress workers. The enthusiastic workers, raising slogans like “Inqlab zindabad”, reached Khatkar Kalan, the village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, in a form of a scooter/motorcycle rally to pay floral tributes to the great martyr. — OC

More than 3,000 run for their heart
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 27
With the combined efforts of Dr Raman Chawla, a leading cardiologist of Notheren India, Hindustan Welfare Blood Donors Group and Pahal Society, a marathon was organised on the occasion of World Heart Day, carrying the theme “Run with your heart”, here today.

The Marathon started at 7 am from the local Oxford Hospital and culminated at Gymkhana Club after passing through Link Road, Milk Bar Chowk, Cool Road Chowk and BMC Chowk. The participants were divided into four age groups and the total prize money for the event was Rs 45,000.

More than 3,000 participants had registered themselves for the mega marathon. S.R. Ladhar, Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, was the chief guest and Dr Daljit Singh, Director, Doordarshan Jalandhar, guest of honor. Dr Chawla delivered a lecture on first aid during heart attack. This marathon was part of mega marathan organised at national level on World Heart Day.