Ballari doctor helped protesting ryots in Delhi

BALLARI: A doctor from Ballari offered his medical expertise to farmers in the national capital, many of whom are senior citizens battling the winter in North India.
Dr Pramod N, an alumnus of Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), said he flew to Delhi on January 28, a day after he received a call from the Medical Service Centre seeking his services at the site of the farmers’ protest.“Reaching Singhu border was difficult with police prohibiting entry to outsiders in the wake of the Republic Day violence. Security had been beefed up all along the way. I rode the Metro to Jahangirpur and shared autorickshaw rides, but we were dropped considerably far from Singhu border. I walked for 3km, with my doctor’s card helping me to negotiate with cops,” he said.
The camp that he was housed in was behind the main dais erected at the border. “Activists of the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation and others were fetching medicines from Sonipat and other towns near the border. A local outfit, despite not being a part of the protest, allowed us to stay after seeing what we were doing,” he said.
Pramod, who treated the farmers in the tents for a week, said that many of them were suffering from problems such as high blood pressure, heart problems etc. “Some of the women are ailing from arthritis. Most of the youngsters seem to be suffering from common cold and cough. On an average, we treated 350 patients each day, from children as young as five to senior citizens as old as 70. Many of them had left their medicines behind at home, and despite the situation turning more adverse, the number of agitators continued to swell,” the doctor said.
Pramod expressed gratitude to his wife, Dr Divya P, doctor at a government hospital in Ballari, and other doctors for lending financial aid to cover his expenses for his trip to Singhu border.