Jorhat, May 27: The Phanidhar Bordoloi Memorial Trust has initiated a project for Majuli, under which Chandraprabha Eye Hospital here will offer free treatment for poor people with eye disorders on the island.

Under the five-year project to be carried out with financial assistance from a Canada-based NGO Operation Eyesight Universal, a survey of the entire population of Majuli will be done.

In the second phase, screening camps will be held in the villages and those patients who require treatment would be brought to the eye hospital and given free treatment and medicines.

Narayan Bordoloi, managing trustee of Phanidhar Bordoloi Memorial Trust, who is also an ophthalmologist and medical director of the hospital, told reporters here today that a proposal to offer eye care at the remote island was sent to the Canadian NGO about two years back, which has been accepted.

He said an MoU has been signed between the NGO and trust recently under which the project will be implemented by the hospital, with the former providing Rs 2 crore funding for five years. Bordoloi said a project coordinator has been appointed to supervise execution of the project. The island has been divided into 10 clusters and 20 people (13 women and 7 men) recruited to carry out survey of people having any kind of eye ailment.

A data entry operator too has been appointed, who would compile the data collected by health workers, who have been divided into 10 groups of two persons each. The managing trustee said all the 21 workers were given training for 11 days last month at the eye hospital by hospital staff and representatives of the Canadian NGO from its Hyderabad office.

“Now the health workers, who have been given bicycles and a small kit are on the job in Majuli. After the first phase of survey which is expected to be over by July, screening camps will be held in different areas of the island and subsequently patients brought here for necessary treatment,” Narayan Bordoloi said.

“We will offer any kind of treatment, be it surgery or modern phaco emulsification to cataract patients. The cost of treatment, stay and transportation will be free for the poor and we will request those who can afford, to pay a certain amount,” he added.

The trustee also said from the share of the profit earned by the hospital, free treatment has been provided to workers of tea gardens in the three districts of Jorhat, Sivasagar and Golaghat.

He said free eye camps were being held since the past four years and so far over 1,100 people have been treated free of cost, which includes different kinds of sophisticated surgeries for various diseases. He said the project named “Tea Garden Project” is an ongoing one and will continue in the future.