Subhash Rajta

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 7

Krishna Verma is unlikely to forget this Sunday for the rest of her life. As a beneficiary of the PM Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi programme, she got an opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video-conferencing in Shimla today.

“I still can’t believe I spoke to the Prime Minister,” the 50-year-old said while returning to her village, Sarog in Theog sub-division of Shimla district, after attending the programme. Even as she said speaking to the PM was a surreal experience, she showed no sign of any nervousness while talking to the PM. “I had rehearsed a few points, but mostly I spoke what came to my mind then and there,” she said.

The PM, however, managed to surprise her when he said he had been to Theog many times during his time in Himachal Pradesh. “I did not know he had been to Theog,” she said. The Prime Minister, too, expressed surprise on learning that she was suffering from diabetes.

“Theog is a place where people have to a walk a lot. So, how did you get diabetes,” asked Modi. The Prime Minister would be more surprised to know that the incidence of diabetes is higher than national average in the state. The shocking revelation had come to the fore in recent all-India ICMR study – IGMC’s Dr Jitender Mokta was the principal investigator of the study in Himachal.

Krishna Verma, who has been taking medicines for diabetes for the last 20 years, expressed gratitude for PM’s Jan Aushadhi programme. “Earlier I had to shell out nearly Rs 6,000 on medicines, but now I spend just Rs 800 to 1,000. It’s a huge relief,” she said.