Awareness about diseases is most important aspect of combating them and The Pioneer lecture on public health is a laudable effort in the direction of public awareness in the society about diseases.
The Cabinet Minister for Urban Development, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Civil Defence, Home Guard and Jail, Pritam Singh Panwar said this while speaking on the occasion of ‘ Health First’ a public health initiative by the Dehradun edition of The Pioneer organised at Raj Bhawan auditorium on Monday. The Minister said that efforts should be made to organise more and more such programmes in the slum areas and the villages where more people are affected by the diseases due to lack of awareness and poor hygiene.
He said that the data proves that more people are suffering from the diseases in the slum dwellings and villages as penetration of knowledge and health services is low there. Panwar was of the opinion that the extensive awareness campaign in the schools and colleges about the causes and preventive measures for common diseases should be undertaken.
The Parliamentary Secretary and Rajpur MlA Raj Kumar appreciated the effort of The Pioneer for organising a public health debate on Tropical diseases.
The president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr Kuldeep Datta used the forum to highlight the need of low interest and easy educational loans for the students. This suggestion of Dr Datta was wildly cheered by the students present in the audience.
He said that the higher and professional education has become very costly due to which the students of poor and mediocre families find it hard to pursue them as the existing interest rates on the educational loans are high. The IMA president said that the Government should ensure that these loans are available at 2–3 per cent to the students.