Doctors from Punjab set up two-day eye-examination camp for protesting farmers at Singhu border
New Delhi, December 20
A team of nine doctors from Punjab’s Garhshankar set up a two-day medical camp at the Singhu border here on Sunday to attend to the protesting farmers who are suffering from eye-related problems.
On their fourth visit to the protest site, a group of doctors, including ophthalmologists, physiotherapists and general physicians, arrived at the Singhu border on Saturday evening after attending to their duties at their respective workplaces in Garhshankar.
Due to the excessive cold, dust and pollution, many protesting farmers, who have been staying put at the Singhu border for nearly a month now, have been complaining of the dry-eye syndrome, watery eyes and other eye-related problems.
The makeshift camp has medicines and equipment worth over Rs 70,000, including eye-examination devices, lubricants, antibodies and anti-allergic eye drops, said the doctors, adding that these medicines could give a temporary relief to the protesters complaining of eye-related problems in this chilling weather.
As several protesters, including women, elderly people and youngsters, visited the camp complaining of a burning sensation due to dry eyes or weakness in the eyesight, Dr Rajdeep Singh (27), one of the ophthalmologists in the team, said during their third visit to the Singhu border, they realised that there was a need for a separate eye camp at the protest site.
“This is not our first visit here. Earlier, we had set up general medical camps on weekends. During our last visit, many people came to us with eye-related problems. While some complained of dry eyes, others complained of a burning sensation or irritations in the eye. So we realised that no such facility was available and decided to set up an exclusive eye-checkup camp here to address the problems of such people,” he said while attending to 50-year-old Mehrunisa, who have been complaining of pain and weakness in her eyes for the last few days.
She was advised to take anti-allergic eye drops twice a day. Hailing from Delhi’s Wazirabad, Mehrunisa has been camping at the Singhu border for the last one week.
Asked if she was a farmer, Mehrunisa said: “I am not a farmer, but we get our food because of our farmer brothers. If we do not stand with them today, we should be ashamed of ourselves.”
Another ophthalmologist in the doctors’ team, Deepak Pandey (35), said: “Most of them complained of eye-related allergies, which are largely caused by dust and pollution. This also causes irritation and swelling in the eyes. Due to the excessive cold, they have also developed the dry-eye syndrome. Excessive use of phones also causes irritation and pain.”
He pointed out that since most of the protesting farmers undertook long journeys on their tractor-trolleys to arrive at the protest site amid this cold spell, they ended up developing eye-related problems due to dust and pollution.
An 18-year-old protester, who has come to the Singhu border from Haryana’s Ambala along with his family, also complained of irritation in his eyes.
Dr Amandeep Singh, a physiotherapist, said, “We are here only to serve the farmers. It is our duty. All medicines are free of cost. Our only intention is to give them our best medical facilities.” — PTI
