Proud moment for Karnataka's Samashti Gubbi as PM lauds her efforts to popularise Sanskrit
Bengaluru (PTI): For over three years Bengaluru's Samashti Gubbi has been striving hard to popularise Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of India.
Her efforts paid off on Sunday when she received a big boost with praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio address, Modi specifically referred to Gubbi's silent efforts to make Sanskrit a spoken language.
Speaking about Sanskrit, the Prime Minister said the language has played a big role in the progress of ancient Indian knowledge and science.
He said nowadays, many people are making such an effort in Bengaluru.
"There is a park in Bengaluru - Cubbon Park! In this park, the people here have started a new tradition. Here, once a week, every Sunday, children, youth and elders talk to each other in Sanskrit," Modi said.
He also pointed out that many debate sessions are also organised in Sanskrit.
"The name of this initiative is Sanskrit Weekend! It has been started by Samashti Gubbi ji through a website. This initiative which started a few days ago has become very popular among the people of Bengaluru," Modi said.
If we all join such efforts, we will get to learn a lot from such an ancient and scientific language of the world, he noted.
Samashti Gubbi's joy knew no bounds when Prime Minister Modi asked countrymen to take a cue from her in promoting the ancient language.
"It's a joyous moment for me when the Prime Minister appreciated my efforts. I have been working to popularise Sanskrit for the past many years," Samashti Gubbi told PTI.
An M.A in Sanskrit, Gubbi has been teaching this language.
She said she started a portal called sthaayi.in in 2021 for the promotion of Sanskrit.
"We organise bike rides for Sanskrit speakers. We also have a Sanskrit band where we translate Bollywood and Kannada film songs into Sanskrit and play them," Gubbi said.
Her 'Sanskrit Weekend' at Cubbon Park had seen the participation of 800 to 900 people.
Is the knowledge of 'Vyakarana' (Sanskrit grammar) a must to learn spoken Sanskrit? To this, Gubbi said, "We don't learn grammar of any language as a child. We just pick up the language."
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
