Costless Eye Screening & Cataract Surgery for Villagers

07 March 2023, Giridih-Jamui-Deoghar: Vimla Ramkrishna Bajaj Eye Hospital-Deoghar, the very fourth unit of LNJP Eye Hospital by NBJK after Hazaribagh, Gaya and Dumka, is performing well in eradication of avoidable blindness.

The medical teams from its Vision Centre at Bengabad (Giridih) with support of Sightsavers and the base hospital are organizing Free Eye Screening Camps in villages of Giridih and Jamui districts. They identify Cataract patients and arrange their transportation, food, surgery, medicines, black glasses, post-surgery follow up services etc at VRBEH-Deoghar and bring them back to their places after vision restoration. The intervention is being sponsored by Naraindas Morbai Budhrani Trust and SBI Foundation.

Within the period of 24 Feb-06 March 2023, VRBEH has conducted such 12 camps at Khadi Gram Shram Bharti, Charia Middle School at Jamui, Bandarmara Middle School, Sono (Jamui), Jaridih, Alodih, Bajito, Gurha, Andharkola villages of Birni, Jamua, Sadar blocks and Vision Centre at Bengabad block of Giridih district.

Total 383 persons turned up to this Eye Checkup initiative and 192 have been detected with Cataract with 29 as suffering from Refractive Error and 04 were with Pterygium. The medical team has provided required medicines to 35 patients during these screening camps. VRBEH has restored eyesight to all Cataract ridden patients.

Most of the patients belong to backward remote areas with absence of any vision care service and poverty stricken ignorant people were not aware of their eye health.

#SBIGramSeva Project Handover Ceremony @SBI_FOUNDATION

02 October 2020, Chakai & Deoghar: SBI Foundation, Mumbai supported SBI Gram Seva project has been ended in Chakai and Deoghar Sadar blocks of Jamui (Bihar) as well as of Deoghar (Jharkhand) districts respectively. The project duration was from October 2017 to September 2020 and it covered 5 villages of each block.

In his video message for the function, Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) introduced NBJK and said about holistic approach of SBI Gram Seva provided livelihood training, arranged for irrigation, supported farmers by resources-training and ensured hygiene with safe drinking water. The villages have access to computers & internet facility. There are Remedial Coaching Centers for school children and required facilities have been provided to schools, aanganbadi centers & health centers, he said. The project has ensured people’s participation with execution through village development committees in each village and many govt. schemes reached there. Mr. Girija called the project as a model for rural development and praised SBIF officials for support. He appealed the policy makers to focus upon agriculture development & irrigation as farm sector can generate maximum livelihood in villages.

On the pious day of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150^th birth anniversary at Chakai and Deoghar, NBJK handed over all the assets created under the project to Village Development Committees. Mr. Debojit Dutta (Program Manager, Chakai) and Mr. Jitendra Kumar (Program Manager, Deoghar) have presented their brief reports and dedicated all assets to the community with MOUs. Also Mrs. Manjula Kalyansundaram (MD & CEO, SBI Foundation), Mr. Nixon Joseph (COO, SBIF), Mr. Siddalingesh (Coordinator, SBIf), Mr. Rajnish Kumar (Chairman, SBI), CGMs of different circles of SBI have conveyed their video messages on the occasion.

At Chakai, Mr. Sanjay Sharma (Director, SBI RSETI), Mr. Mithilesh Kumar (LDM) and other faculty members have shared their inputs & feedback. At Deoghar as the chief guest, Mr. Narayan Das (MLA, Deoghar) said that a responsible community can utilize the resources available now. Also Mr. R. P. N. Sahay (LDM), Mr. S. K. Jha, Mr. Bhuwan Bhaskar (Asst. Director, Ministry of Textiles, GOI), Mr. Siyaram Singh (RSETI, Deoghar), Mr. Munna Singh, Mr. Inam Ahmad (Headmaster, High school, Koiridih) have valued the initiatives taken under the project and assured for support to villagers.

Symposium on #LocalGovernance, Problems and Solution @bread4theworld @welt

09 February, Amrit Nagar (Hazaribag): Under joint auspices of NBJK and BFW (Germany), a symposium was organized upon problems and possible solution for Local Self-governance by Urban Bodies in Jharkhand. Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) has welcomed all participants and initiated the discussion with important role of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for development as per 74th constitutional amendment.

He called for reform in functioning of State Finance Commission as well as of ULBs and advocated for discretionary grant allocation to address priorities smoothly. Mr. Girija Satish has drawn attention towards loopholes like lack of proper skill among ULB staffs, their irregular salary, unprofessional approach and compulsion to work at officers’ residence instead of genuine work place. He suggested for a rational structure of municipal tax in accordance with the services available and a fixed proportion of all central-state revenue to support ULBs. There should be a realistic annual plan about sanitation, water supply, drainage, road & others by such bodies with a free hand to outsource major cleanliness work and to ensure primary-secondary garbage disposal points including dustbins, he opined.

Also Mr. Gautam Sagar Rana (President, Jharkhand State RJD) has joined the discourse as an inhabitant of Hazaribag town and raised the issues like encroachment of old water structures, irregularities in appointment of municipal staffs along with  need of suitable structure at public places. Mr. Rana has advised NBJK to support sanitation work in Hazaribag town and for a people’s memorandum to Deputy Commissioner about civic problems. Mr. Shamsher Alam has urged for a defined role of ULBs and demanded to ban heart throbbing DJ sounds. Prof. R. S. Ambashtha has expressed deep concern over possession of government land by influential people and suggested to question people’s representatives. He requested Jharkhand government to review the hike of municipal tax.

Also Mrs. Noorjahan Begam (Matwari), Mrs. Abha Devi (Khirgaon), Mrs. Rehana Khatoon (PTC Chowk), Mr. Rajkumar (Mali Tola), Mrs. Anjali Singh (Okni) have shared their distress upon poor civic facilities and liquor shops in their areas. They demanded for action by the municipality. Mr. Shankar Rana (Coordinator, Lok Samiti) has anchored the dais and concluded with vote of thanks while Mr. Rajiv Singh (Program Manager) and Md. Nayeem (Asst. PM) have supported the event.