Lions Club International to distribute one lakh calipers

Tiruchirapalli, Jan 27 (UNI) The Lions Club International, a leading service organisation in the world, would distribute one lakh light weight calipers to the polio-affected persons in India.

Talking to newspersons here today, International Association of Lions Club Director K G Ramakrishna Murthy said the project would be launched with the support of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and be completed within two years from now.

The DRDO designed calipers made out of composite materials weighs around 300 grams, Chief Controller of Research and Development wing of DRDO A Sivathanu Pillai said.

Mr Ramakrishna Murthy said already the DRDO had tested more than 12,000 calipers and had seen successful results.

The approximate price of the calipers was Rs 800 per piece. The project would cover the entire nation through the club network and already test-runs had been made at Hyderabad, Chennai and Coimbatore, he added.

On Tsunami relief operations, he said the Lions Club had already spent Rs eight crore. About 500 houses were being constructed in the coastal locations of Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Nellore, Ponneri near Chennai, Nagapattinam, Vedaranyam and Kochi and it would be handed over within six months, he added.

He said a full-fledged hospital was thrown open at Puducherry and Disaster Rehabilitation Center equipped with all the basic amenities was coming up at Chennai.

Care for the blind was another major project taken up by the Lions Club International and in India alone 125 hospitals had been raised so far.

The Lions Club International Movement Board, to which Ramakrishna Murthy is a member, has decided to garner a sum of 140 million USD within a period of ten years and launch a massive programme on restricting blindness across the globe.

Lions Club International had been recognised by WHO as the most prominent service organisation, which was responsible for eradicating more than 40 per cent of blindness in the world.

Earlier, Mr Ramakrishna Murthy inaugurated a two-day Leo Multiple Convention here today.

UNI