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 18,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 18: Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Saturday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deposit at least Rs 10,000 in bank accounts of people belonging to the unorganised sector.

"The unorganised sector comprises barbers, dhobi, cooks, carpenters, sweepers, drivers and autorickshaw drivers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not mention anything about giving subsistence to these people," Shivakumar, told ANI, referring to the Prime Minister's address earlier this week.

Modi had announced the extension of the ongoing nationwide lockdown till May 3 in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.

"I appeal to Prime Minister Modi to register the members of the unregistered sector under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) or deposit at least Rs 10,000 to the bank accounts of each of the members of unorganised sector to help them survive the lockdown," he added.

Though the Congress party will continue the central government and state government's fight against coronavirus, he said, both the governments need to help people who are part of the unorganised sector.

"The farmers have told me that due to the lockdown they are ready to sell the vegetables, which once used to be sold at Rs 100 per kg, at even Rs 5 per kg," he said.

Speaking on the suggestions he made to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Shivakumar said, "I requested the Chief Minister to send a team to do a videograph and make an assessment of the on-ground situation. However, till now, no one has gone."

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News Network
April 25,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 25: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada today reported another covid-19 case. With this the total number of coronavirus positive case in the district rose to 18 including two deaths. 

The health and family welfare department in its bulletin today announced that a 33-year-old woman from Bantwal tested positive for coronavirus. She is undergoing treatment at Wenlock Hospital which is now converted into covid-19 hospital. 

She is the daughter of 67-year-old woman from Bantwal who was tested positive for the deadly disease last week. Both are the neighbours of the two women from Bantwal who died of covid-19 recently.

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News Network
May 30,2020

Bengaluru, May 30: A city corporator in Bengaluru was sent into quarantine on Saturday after he tested positive for the coronavirus infection, officials said.

"Yes, I have tested positive," Padarayanapura municipal ward corporator Imran Pasha told some news channels.

The JDS corporator said he would quarantine himself as per the regulations.

The entire area where Pasha lives was cordoned off.

Health workers reached there in an ambulance and gave him a personal protection gear to wear and he was taken to a designated hospital.

Reacting to the development, Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka claimed Pasha hardly paid heed to the COVID-19 regulations.

"He rushes to all those places wherever there are positive cases...," Ashoka told reporters.

Padarayanapura was declared as a containment zone earlier with a few cases coming to the fore.

It was in this area where some policemen and health workers were attacked when they went to quarantine a few primary and secondary contacts of a COVID-19 patient about a month ago.

Following the incident, about 125 people were arrested, and later quarantined after a few of them tested positive.

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