Amritsar, August 26
In order to meet the shortage of staff in government medical colleges, the Punjab cabinet has given clearance to the direct recruitment of doctors, who were otherwise to be recruited through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

About 25 per cent posts of various government medical colleges are filled by the PPSC while the remaining 75 per cent vacant posts are filled by way of departmental promotion.

Confirming this, minister for research and medical education, Tikshan Sud said the cabinet has approved the proposal and all the posts in Punjab medical colleges would directly be filled by the state government.

Various medical colleges in Punjab are facing severe shortage of staff owing to the ban on new recruitments and retirement of existing staff.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) had given clear cut instructions to these colleges to fill the vacant posts as per its guidelines or else face the music. The council had even asked to de-recognise these colleges, if they failed to fill the vacant posts. About 15 to 30 per cent posts in the government medical colleges (GMC) of Amritsar and Patiala are vacant and as many as 100 doctors would be recruited by the state government through this process, it is learnt. “These posts would be advertised within a day or two and the process of recruitment would start thereafter. Whenever the MCI authorities would visit the medical colleges, they would have a strong reason to have confidence in us,” said the minister.

Selection of doctors would be made by a committee headed by Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Medical Sciences. The committee would also consist of Director Research and Medical Education (DRME), secretary, social welfare, besides senior faculty of PGI, Chandigarh and others as its members. Meanwhile, reliable sources in the GMC here said vacant posts would also be filled by way of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) of the college, which would convene its meeting as soon as possible.

Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted a stay on filling of posts by way of DPC, owing to seniority dispute in gynaecologists. The government has approached the court with a proposal to exempt gynaecologists from the promotion list for the time being, till their seniority dispute is settled and a decision is awaited in this regard, the sources added.

According to sources, an MCI team would soon visit the college premises to examine whether the college authorities have removed the shortcomings pointed by them during their earlier visits.

Nawanshahr, August 26
Six-year-old Rohit, who was admitted to the Civil Hospital for operating tonsils, died at about 3 am on Thursday. Gurpal, father of the deceased, has lodged a complaint with the police accusing the hospital staff of showing careless in the treatment.

In his complaint, Gurpal has stated that his son was admitted to the Civil Hospital on Wednesday by ENT specialist Dr Ajwinder Kaur Gill for conducting operation of tonsils on Thursday. All the medicines prescribed by the doctor for using for the treatment of the boy were brought by them and handed over to the hospital staff.

At about 8 pm on Wednesday, though the staff nurse, Jasvir Kaur, was present there, an injection was given to his son by a Class IV employee, Nachhatar Kaur, following which the condition of his son worsened and he died. But, the hospital staff started persuading them to take the boy to another hospital. On the basis of the complaint, a case under section 304 A of the IPC had been registered against Dr Ajwinder Kaur Gill, staff nurse Jasvir Kaur, Class IV employee Nachhatar Kaur and Dr N.P. Sharma, who was on emergency duty, at city police station.

Dr Ajwinder Kaur Gill and Dr N.P. Sharma, when contacted on phone, while terming the death of the boy unfortunate denied the allegations of carelessness in the treatment. They also termed the allegation that the boy died immediately after administering injection as baseless. “When the condition of the boy became serious at about 8 pm on Wednesday, he was immediately brought to the emergency and Dr Rajesh Bhatia, medicine specialist, immediately started the treatment and even child specialists were immediately called and after half an hour the boy recovered from the serious condition,” said Dr N.P. Sharma. He said then the father and relatives of the patient were advised to take the boy to some big hospital as he immediately needed to be kept in a well-equipped ICU, but they instead of understanding the emergency, started blaming the hospital staff, consequently delaying the shifting of the patient. The paient was taken to the nearby Raja Hospital where doctors put in their effort to save the boy but perhaps the unfortunate delay proved fatal for him.

Dr Rakesh Gupta, Civil Surgeon, also denied the allegations of carelessness in the treatment. The second dose of the antibiotic needed to be injected before conducting operation was given to the boy, so it could not be said that the medicine had caused any reaction. However, if a complaint was received, he would constitute a medical board to ascertain the cause of death and suitable action would be taken if the carelessness in treatment was proved, added the Civil Surgeon.

Hoshiarpur, August 26
A man has siphoned off Rs 3,36,500 from the bank account (No 0455000322459841) of an old man of Punjab National Bank (PNB) at Tanda Urmur.

According to SHO of Tanda police station Satinder Kumar, Mohinder Lal (80) of the Fatehgarh Mohalla, Tanda Urmur, presently residing at Ludhiana, stated in his complaint that he went to the automated teller machine (ATM) installed by the PNB at Tanda on August 5 for withdrawing some cash. Due to his old age, he gave his ATM card to a man already standing in the ATM room, who after withdrawing Rs 10,000 from the machine gave it to Mohinder Lal along with his ATM card.

Today Mohinder Lal went to the ATM of the PNB here to withdraw some cash. When Mohinder Lal put his ATM card in the machine, it was rejected. He went to the Tanda branch of the PNB and inquired about the rejection of his card from the Manager, who told him that his card was not genuine. The Manager got his account checked and found that there was only a balance of Rs 24 left in his account. During this period someone had withdrawn Rs 3,36,500 from his account.

Satinder Kumar said the police was investigating the case.

Jalandhar, August 26
With the rainy reason at its peak, the Majha and Doaba regions are in the grip of eye flu for the past few days.

The number of patients reporting in the district hospitals, private clinics and health centres with complaints of eye redness, itching and swollen eyelids are rising with every passing day.

As the disease is highly contagious, even the scores of students of various schools of the region are afflicted by the disease. Doctors are of the opinion that considering the high number of patients, the condition is no less than an epidemic.

As pet the random survey conducted by The Tribune, more than half of the total patients, reporting in eye out patient department (OPD) of such health centres, are suffering from eye flu and cases might increase in the coming days due to the prolonged rainy season.

Dr B.S. Dhillon, Professor and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Medical Sciences, Amritsar, said on an average 35 to 40 patients of eye flu were reporting in the eye department of the institute alone.

“The problem is getting severe since the past one week. The disease is not confined to a single community or an age group. Not only schoolchildren, number of patients in middle age group is also quite high,” said Dr Dhillon.

Dr Sandeep Dhawan, Senior Ophthalmologist, Civil Hospital, Kapurthala, said the situation was epidemic in nature as more than 70 per cent cases coming in the OPD were afflicted with the flu.

“Cases coming to us report in later stages. Most of the patients prefer to get treatment from local quacks or do self-medication. This made the disease more sporadic,” he said.

Dr VK Khullar, Senior Medical Officer, Ophthalmology, Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, said besides increasing number of cases, worrisome was the nature of disease.

“Though eye flu is generally considered as a viral infection, which is a self-limiting disease, most of the cases we are encountering are of bacterial infection. Such cases cannot be left to subside of their own. Antibiotic administration is essential in these cases”, he added.

Dr Prem Bharti, SMO, Ophthalmology, Civil Hospital, Hoshiarpur, also confirmed that 25 to 30 patients were reporting every day for the past one week.

Doctors are not able to comment on even the approximate number of cases most of the cases in peripheral areas went unreported. Moreover, a quite good number of patients prefer to go to private clinics.

Tarn Taran, August 26
Post mortem examination was conducted for the second time on the body of army man Sukhdev Singh (32), who was found dead at his army head quarter on the morning of August 22.

The parents of Sukhdev, who was posted in Unit 116 Engineering Regiment, Allahabad, smelled foul play in the death of their son.

The representatives of the BSP and Dalit organisations of the area organised a protest here at the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC), forcing the administration to get the body of the deceased to be re-examined.

According to information collected by this correspondent, Sukhdev was found dead on the morning of August 22 and the headquarters informed the parents of the deceased that he committed suicide by cutting his neck with a sharp-edged weapon.

Charan Singh, resident of Burj Nathuke village falling under the Patti sub division, the father of the deceased, told this correspondent that the family had already smelled foul play as the CO of the unit had been serving threats to Sukhdev because his family had lodged a suit against him.

Sukhdev’s family members alleged that the CO had given a portion of the salary of Sukhdev to his wife, who got divorced from him, and had remarried. The family had challenged the act of the CO in the judiciary.

Tarsem Singh Ahir of the BSP said the army violated set norms by sending the body here without security guards.

Representatives of Dalit organisations held a protest here, demanding the re-examination of the body by conducting post mortem, which was allowed by the DC without delay.

Post-mortem examination had also been conducted at Allahabad but Sukhdev’s parents suspected foul play.

Nawanshahr, August 26
While the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, patted the back of people and the district civil and police administration for their efforts being put in for the past three days to save the Dhussi bundh from developing a breach at the Tajowal-Mandala complex along the Sutlej falling in the district, he tried to evade addressing the grievances of the residents of the villages, who have been living under the constant threat of floods.

He also evaded media queries regarding the functioning of the Drainage Department, which had not done anything concrete to strengthen the Dhussi bundh before the onset of monsoon. Badal, accompanied by Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Adviser to the CM, and Jatinder Singh Kariha, local MLA, visited the site here on today.

“Let us be positive and praise the timely good work done by the people, district civil and police administration to save the people from the fury of the flood,” said the Deputy CM, adding that in future a technical team would be constituted to conduct a survey to identify the sensitive points of the Dhussi bundh.

On Tuesday morning, with the increase of water level in the Sutlej, about 70-80 ft area of the Dhussi bundh was damaged. Had the villagers not taken the timely action to check the further erosion of the bundh, it would have converted into a big breach, consequently flooding about 40-50 villages nearby.

Besides, the Deputy Commissioner, Shruti Singh, pressed the district administration into service to plug the breach. On Tuesday night, the flowing river water was again about to play havoc, but the SSP, Narinder Bhargav, not only reached there at about 11 pm, but put the police force to work manually for the safety of the Dhussi bundh there. Since Tuesday, the entire police and civil administration and residents of the nearby villages have been putting in concerted efforts to avert the breach.

“Not only hundreds of NREGA labourers and village residents have been putting sand bags to avert the breach, but the residents of the nearby villages have voluntarily been supplying thousands of sand bags in their tractor-trailers at the site. The villagers have also put up langars for providing food and tea at the site,” said the DC, while praising the spirit being shown by the people.

The residents of the villages along the Sutlej river are all critical about the functioning of the Drainage Department as it has constantly been ignoring their suggestions regarding undertaking the strengthening of the Dhussi bundh.