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This auto-rickshaw driver helps leprosy patients lead a dignified life

Agencies
October 15, 2017

Kalaburagi, Oct 15: Setting an example of selfless service, an auto-rickshaw driver, Hanmanth Huvanna Devnoor, helps leprosy patients lead a dignified life.

Setting aside eight hours of his day for the patients, Hanmanth has been treating the patients for the last 20 years.
Hanmanth shared his story about how his life changed after his mother got leprosy.

"My mother had leprosy. When my father took her to the doctor, they asked us to not stay with her or eat with her. My parents came home crying. My father in fear of getting affected left me and my mother and went to another village. He never came back. My mother did not have the money, so she begged at the temple to feed me and my sister," said Hanmanth.

"The people of the leprosy colony saw my mother crying and asked her to live with them. No one used to come to stay with these patients, who left their villages and settled here," he added.

It was Hanmanth's mother who inspired him to serve these people.

"Before my mother passed away, she asked me to help and serve these patients. The colony people asked me to work so I took loan and drove auto rickshaw. I keep a part of the money I earn aside for the leprosy patients."

Hanmanth saves a portion of his earnings everyday and provides help to the leprosy patients by dressing their wounds, giving them first aid and also taking them to the government offices to help them in getting benefits of schemes for leprosy patients.

A leprosy patient, Kondabha, who got leprosy in 1972, also entailed how he met Hanmanth.

"Whatever life we are living now, it is because of Hanmanth. As we are not able to work, my wife and children work; Hanmanth also looks after us. It is because of him only that we are living here. Earlier there were small huts, but now we have our homes. And this is because of Hanmanth. We have not got any help from the government."

In 2002, Hanmanth opened the Mahatma Gandhi Leprosy Dispensary Centre in the colony to provide regular dressing to the leprosy patients. He even took basic training from a doctor at the Leprosy Treatment Centre.

India has the world's largest number of persons affected by leprosy.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Udupi, Apr 8: Six patients were admitted to isolation wards in the hospitals in the district on Tuesday.

While four people were suffering from symptoms of COVID-19, two were suffering from SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection).

As many as 19 samples were collected and sent for Covid-19 testing to a laboratory in Shivamogga.

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News Network
February 9,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 9: Senior JD(S) leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has called upon all the regional parties and secular parties to join hands with the Congress and work in tandem to take on the BJP.

Noting that mere speeches would not help, he said the regional and secular parties should enhance their strength politically in the country.

"We all need to join together with Congress and work in tandem with the available strength only then will we be able to stop them (the BJP)," the JD(S) supremo said at a public meeting organised by the party in Hassan district on Saturday.

Gowda cautioned the regional and secular parties against sitting idle watching the developments in the country.

"If the small and regional parties do not exercise the powers given by Dr B R Ambedkar to the country, they (BJP) are going to the extent of finishing them up," he said. Interestingly, the JD(S) patriarch, had in the run-up to the December bypolls to Karnataka assembly said he would not align with the Congress and dubbed it as "not trustworthy."

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News Network
May 8,2020

Kochi, May 8: Five people, who were among 181 individuals evacuated from Abu Dhabi, have been sent to the isolation ward of the district hospital after they displayed symptoms of coronavirus during thermal screening.

The first repatriation Air India Express flight with 181 individuals from Abu Dhabi landed at Cochin International Airport here on Thursday.

Among the returnees, 49 women were pregnant and four were children. They have been home-quarantine.

Meanwhile, the rest have been taken to quarantine centres in their respective districts.

The Air India Express flight IX452 to Kochi with 177 passengers and four infants took off from Abu Dhabi International Airport and touched down at Kochi post 10 pm.

The government has made it mandatory for foreign returnees to be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state government.

A COVID-19 test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols.

India on Monday began phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad due to coronavirus lockdown.

The government said that Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

Starting from 7 May, 64 flights will take off for 12 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Singapore and the US.

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