A tribal man’s request to provide assistance to 20-odd villagers who had different degrees of vision that needed immediate medical assistance turned Utnoor’s Deputy Superintendent of Police N. Uday Reddy into taking it up as a mission.
What started with a genuine concern for 20 tribals of Jamda village in Adilabad district has now crossed 260 and they are back to normal life. Mr. Reddy had set a target of getting vision back to at least 600 people till the end of this March and the entire medical expenditure is borne by him from his personal savings.
Speaking to The Hindu , the 29-year-old officer said that during a customary visit to Jamda on Diwali last year, village head Durgu Patel informed him about vision impairment. Moved by their plight, he wrote to LV Prasad Eye Institute for medical assistance. So far, they have performed 67 eye surgeries.“From my end I’m paying for their pre-operative screening, eye-wear and medicines as it might be heavy on their pockets,” he said, refusing to specify the amount he has spent so far.
Apart from this, the police also conducted over 550 medical camps in 300 villages in the Utnoor sub-division.
Further to harness the tribal youth power towards a desired goal, the the DSP formed Police Youth Clubs in every gram panchayat, thus providing a platform to youngsters to interact and hone their skills. “We created Police Youth Club WhatsApp messaging group for every village to share awareness messages, including cyber crimes, and fight fake news,” Mr. Reddy s aid, adding that every youth should be a cyber warrior.
Police also conduct sports events, job melas, and other activities to engage tribal youth. “Corporates like Amazon, Flipkart and Big Basket have hired people from Utnoor and surrounding villages. Another job mela was held at Ichoda on Monday,” he added.
