New Delhi August 15:
            Punjab sought a super speciality centre from the Union Government for treatment of cancer patients in the disease-infested Malwa region of the State.
The husband-wife duo of Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister, and Harsimrat Kaur Badal,MP, made a strong pitch for a Super Speciality Cancer Research and Treatment Centre at Mansa under the National Cancer Programme during their meeting with Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad here. But the Health Minister assured only a cancer unit in one of the medical institutes in the state, a Punjab government statement said.
They told him that in Bathinda, the parliamentary constituency of Ms Badal, cancer had claimed lives of 1,089 people in the last three years. Stating that Bathinda region is becoming epicentre of cancer in India, they said intensive use of urea and other chemical fertilisers had contaminated both soil and ground water. They said researchers have found carcinogenic residue in the blood of farmers and in breast milk of the nursing mothers in the region.
The Badals told the Health Minister that researchers have also found very high level of uranium concentration in the hair samples of children, adding traces of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, strontium and barium were also found. Giving an account of pervasive menace of cancer in the area, they said out of the 3,409 tests and 894 mammograms conducted in Bathinda and adjoining Mansa districts, 46 cases turned out positive, while 131 were rated suspects. The region has no diagnostic and treatment centre and sufferers have to travel to Chandigarh and Bikaner for the purpose.