JASWANT SINGH GANDAM & RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: UK-based popular Punjabi singer Malkit Singh ‘Golden Star’ visited Punarjot Eye Bank and evinced keen interest in its working.
Ashok Mehra, international coordinator of Punarjot Welfare Society, SAID that Malkit Singh appreciated the contribution of the NGO in the field of eye donation and corneal transplant.
Dr Ramesh, Director, Punarjot Eye Bank, Ludhiana, apprised the visiting artiste of the process of eye donation and transplant.
Mehra, who is an NRI, said that Malkit met 12-year-old boy Rajat of Ludhiana and 28-year-old Zaheer of Uttar Pradesh who underwent corneal transplant.
Malkit was told that Ludhiana’s Eye Bank was the first such body in North India to have so far done 5,200 corneal transplants, gifting sight to the visually impaired.
Dr Ramesh and Mehra said that eyes should be donated within six hours of the death of the donor.
They said that there was acute shortage of donors.
Eye donation in Grade A cornea (young eye cornea) was lot less than the eye donation by elderly people, they said.
In India, 60,000 to 75,000 eyes are donated every year but the waiting list for corneal transplant was over one million.
Dr Ramesh told Malkit that their mission was ‘Corneal Blindness Free World’ for which their motto was ‘Donate Eyes, Give Sight’.
Malkit Singh, who is a Member of Order of British Empire, lauded the mission for its work.
