Good News- 23 Villages of Changlang and Namsai Districts were declared Avoidable Blindness Free – informed Chowna Mein
Namsai
A good news for this part of the State as 23 Villages of Changlang and Namsai Districts were declared Avoidable Blindness Free under the National Program for Control of Blindness (NPCB) today. The Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein made the declaration in a simple but impressive function at Arunachal University of Studies at Namsai today. Out of these 23 villages, 20 villages are of Bordumsa, Diyun and Innao circles of Changlang District and 3 villages of Namsai District.
The Avoidable Blindness Free status for these 23 villages was achieved under the Avoidable Blindness Free Arunachal (ABFAR) Project, a joint venture of the NPCB & VI, Govt of Arunachal Pradesh in partnership with Chandra Prabhu Eye Hospital, Jorhat, Operation Eyesight Universal (an NGO) and Seeing is Believing (Standard Chartered Bank) on PPP mode.
In his declaration speech, Mein credited the achievements to the ASHA workers, health care functionaries at the grass root level and to all the stakeholders of the NPCB programme. He said that it is the result of a team effort and expressed hope that ABFAR Project would be adopted and extended to other parts of the State to make whole of the State an Avoidable Blindness Free State.
As proposed during the programme, he also said to initiate establishment of a Zonal Eye Specialist Centre at Namsai for whole of the Eastern Zone of the State as people of the State often travels to other parts of the country for eye check up and treatments costing them huge expenses.
Prof. (Dr) Sangeeta Abrol, Deputy Director General, NPCB & VI, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of India lauded the achievement made in the State under NPCB program in PPP Mode. She said that the ABFAR Project in the State would be taken as a role model and a pilot project for other States to follow. She also appreciated the way ASHAs function in the State and further assured all possible assistance and support from the Ministry in future endeavors of the programme in the State.
Earlier, Dr Taba Khanna, State Programme Officer, NPCB & VI, Govt of Arunachal Pradesh highlighted the achievements made under the programme in the State. He informed that the Arunachal Pradesh is the 2nd highest blindness prevalent State after Assam in the country and efforts are on to remove this blindness tag from the State.
State BJP President, Tapir Gao, MLA Namsai, Chau Zingnu Namchoom, DC Namsai, Dr Tapashya Raghav, Vice Chancellor of AUS, Prof V K Kwatra, Chairman of AUS, Ashwin Lochan, DMO Namsai Dr N Soreya Namchoom also spoke on the Occasion.
