The Governor of Uttarakhand Aziz Qureshi inaugurated the 'Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight' at the Doon Women's hospital here on Monday.
The fortnight is being organised by the state Health department to increase the awareness about the disease and to reduce the diarrohea deaths in children below five years to zero.
Speaking on the occasion the Governor said that it is not only the moral but also the religious duty of all those associated with Government and health department to ensure that not a single child dies from the diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia.
Emphasizing the need to focus the diarrhoea control programme in the slum areas Qureshi said that this disease is more prevalent in the areas where the light of development has failed to reach. "The State should make such arrangements wherein every citizen has easy access to the basic health and education services and this was the dream of Nehru and Gandhi for the people of independent India," he said.
The Governor formally inaugurated the diarrhoea control fortnight (July 28-August 8) by administering zinc tablets and ORS suspension to the children.
The Health Minister Surendra Singh Negi highlighted the need to undertake the programme and informed about the strategy to be adopted to make this programme a success.
He said that an extensive awareness campaign should be organised and the role of field workers is of paramount importance for it. He said that diarrhoea is a serious disease and occurs due to unhygienic conditions. The Director General of State Medical and Health service Dr GS Joshi delivered the welcome address.
The Parliamentary secretary and Rajpur road MlA Raj Kumar gave vote of thanks at the end of the ceremony.
The Principal Secretary, Health Om Prakash, Project Director of National Health Mission and Additional Secretary of Governor Dr Nidhi Pandey, District Magistrate of Dehradun Chandresh Yadav, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr BS Jangpangi, the Principal Medical Superintendent (PMS) of Doon Hospital Dr R S Aswal, the Superintendent of Women's hospital Dr Chandra Pant, senior officials of health department and large number of Asha workers were present during the ceremony.