M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Nov 16: 98 per cent of the 1,849 TB patients undergoing treatment in Palamu have given their consent to get adopted by Ni-kshay Mitra for a monthly food basket, each containing 3 kg pulses, 1.5 kg gram, 1 kg each of jaggery and peanuts, 1 litre of mustard oil and 1kg of Sattu.
Giving this information today, district TB officer Dr Anil Kumar Srivastav said: “We are anxiously looking for more and more Ni-kshay Mitra to adopt 98 per cent of the consented TB patients to food baskets.”
Consent to adoption and subsequent receipt for food basket is a prerequisite to becoming a Ni-kshay Mitra added Srivastav.
Today, 7 Ni-kshay Mitra came forward with 32 food baskets. Six of them are doctors who contributed 30 food packets which means baskets to 5 TB patients by each doctor.
There is one community health personnel of anti-retroviral treatment Varun Anand Prasad who adopted 2 TB patients. “His contribution to food basket for 2 TB patients in his capacity is appreciable,” said the district TB officer Dr Srivastav.
The 6 doctors who were the first in Palamu to come forward to food aid to the TB patients are Dr Vijay Kumar Singh (civil surgeon Palamu), Dr Anil Kumar Srivastav (district TB officer), Dr Rajesh Kumar (physician), Dr Perween Siddharth (orthopaedic surgeon), Dr Shweta Singh (dentist) and Dr Anshuman Sagar (dentist).
3 of the 6 doctors are from the family of the civil surgeon Palamu Dr Vijay Kumar Singh namely his son Siddharth, daughter-in-law Shweta and himself. Thus, this family adopted 15 TB patients for food baskets. The cost of one food basket for one month comes to over Rs 800.
Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde has asked the civil surgeon to ensure that food baskets reach the TB patients at their houses themselves.
The civil surgeon said community health centres would be asked to facilitate this outreach of the food packets among the TB patients at their dwellings.
Sources said there is a strong medical point in the DC’s direction of home delivery of food baskets. The TB patients will not come out and travel making others not to be vulnerable to latent TB infection.
District TB officer Dr Anil Kumar Srivastav said the Palamu BJP MP V D Ram has offered to adopt entire TB patients under the Paton block. The number of TB patients in Paton block is 118.
A chemical plant of Aditya Birla at Rehla has to adopt 60 TB patients who will be getting food baskets every month from this chemical plant.
The Red Cross Society is to cater to 18 TB patients coming from the primitive vulnerable tribal groups in Palamu.
The distribution of food baskets among the 32 TB patients was a solemn affair. Right from the civil surgeon to the district TB officer to the dentists and others all stood in attendance for the food service to the TB patients. It is a good start but miles to go to reach 1800 plus TB patients now after this 32 delivery of food baskets and 2 per cent of the TB patients refusing to have this charity food basket.
