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Delhi medicos laud relief work by RSS, VHP

Delhi medicos laud relief work by RSS, VHP

Author: Pramod Kumar
Publication: The Organiser
Date: February 18, 2001
 
"We had the impression that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are the organisations launching movements only for temple construction. But the relief work done by the volunteers of these organisations in earthquake affected areas of Gujarat, has moved everyone", said Dr. Kamal Praval, a senior orthopedic surgeon who was part of the doctors' team from Delhi that visited the quake affected areas of Gujarat. The doctors were narrating their experience to media persons in New Delhi after returning from Gujarat.

The general feeling in Gujarat is that though the RSS and the VHP have done so much of relief work, the media has probably not highlighted them adequately. They may have been ignored deliberately, they added.

A team of 36 leading doctors of Delhi equipped with all necessary equipments and medicines, left for the quake affected areas of Gujarat on the very next day the deadly quake rocked parts of Gujarat following a call from the Union Home Minister L.K. Advani. The team led by former Health Minister of Delhi Dr. Harsh Vardhan included senior surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, ENT surgeons, Gynecologists and Physicians. Most of them were from private sector practicing in reputed hospitals of the capital. The doctors had the equipments sufficient to create an operation theater in a small tent.

According to Dr. Harsh Vardhan, after reaching Ahmedabad on January 27 the team of doctors was told to rush Patan, 145 km from Ahmedabad, where patients from different affected areas were being shifted for immediate treatment. At that moment there were over 800 patients. The patients were lying even on the floor of the corridors, outside and inside the wards and outside the small dispensary. "Within the next couple of days we were able to ensure medical aid to all the patients and we also performed - over 250 surgical operations to save the victims," Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

Simultaneously, a small group of doctors with Dr Harsh Vardhan started visiting other places in the quake-affected areas like Bachau, Anjar, Bhuj, etc. to locate other victims and to "establish health cent" as well as to find out if more doctors or medicine were required. But at all the places there was plenty of medical manpower. Apart from Indian medicos, several international agencies were also providing medical aid to the victims.

"The greatest thing that we saw in Gujarat was that the nation responded quickly to the tragedy. I have special appreciation and praise for the cadre of the RSS and the VHP for their excellent services. They have set up an excellent example of self-less service. We saw uniformed RSS swayamsevaks working outside and inside the operation theaters, wards, etc. In Patan we also saw the women volunteers of Rashtriya Sevika Samiti preparing the best quality meal for more than three thousand people everyday. Even at this crisis moment whatever surgical equipment or medicine was required, that was managed within minutes by the RSS volunteers. It was just unimaginable. Though, the number of voluntary organisations contributed in this tragedy, the leader in all thew were the RSS and the VHP volunteers who very easily mobilised all help and that too in most organised fashion,' said Dr. C. M. Bhagat, another member of the team.
 


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