From our Correspondent

DIGBOI, July 22: As a part of the Community Development Programme under CSR IOC (AOD), a free eye check-up and operation camp was conducted recently here at Borbil No. 1, a permanent service centre, Digboi.

The camp which was organized by Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Assam Oil Division, Digboi in association with the Lions Club of Digboi under District Control Blindness Society, Tinsukia had been successfully carried out by a 15-member squad of nurses and para medicos led by Dr Bivash Kumar Das, CMO (Ophthal) of AOD Hospital, Digboi.

The inaugural meeting which was initiated by Lion Atul C Sarmah earlier in the morning was graced by Barun Barpujari, Executive Director, AOD as chief guest who had subsequently inaugurated the free eye check-up camp for the day. Barpujari in his speech reiterated the CSR activities of Assam Oil and urged upon the needy people to avail the opportunities of services to be offered by the organization from time to time. The meeting was attended by a large number of beneficiaries, members of Lions Club of Digboi and Amulya Gohain, District Programme Manager of DBCS, Tinsukia. Dr BK Das also spoke on the occasion and appreciated the efforts taken by the Corporation and local NGO like Lions Club of Digboi for taking up such noble projects for restoring eyesight to the marginalized sections of the society.

According to an official sources, around one hundred and twenty patients had attended the camp among which 20 beneficiaries of various age groups including both sexes were selected for free cataract operation with Intra Occular Lens implantation which was successfully accomplished at Tinsukia Civil Hospital recently. Meanwhile, around fifty patients were given free spectacles for near vision correction and others were provided with free medicines for various eye related ailments as per their requirements. Besides, spot blood sugar test and blood pressure check were also carried out by a Lab technician Gopal Rajbongshi of AOD Hospital at the camp site during the camp.

The local populace including the beneficiaries expressed their gratefulness towards the organizers terming the whole move as ‘a generous and noble act of a few for the sake of economically crippled segments of the society that forms the bulk of it’.