Just before the commencement of the recent legislature session, the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Prasanna Kumar Pincha, was in Bangalore to review the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act in Karnataka.

Call me Alisha. I can’t reveal my real name,” she says, as she speaks on the mobile with élan. At 24, she is as charming as Indipop singer Alisha Chinai. Her listeners are only too happy to hear a sweet voice enticing them for a mobile or landline connection.In just three minutes, Alisha manages to get a customer. What’s more, she handles 300 such calls a day though not all are ‘fruitful’. This camera shy Alisha’s face lights up when you talk ‘calls’.

Within minutes of the tele-conversation, her customers are convinced into buying a mobile or a landline connection. Her enticing voice has listeners hooked on. So much so, that “some continue to talk, to just listen to my voice, wasting my time and theirs! I cut the calls when they do this,” says Alisha (not her real name).

Punarjot Eye Bank of Punjab held an awareness fortnight meet on eye donation. Punjab Health Minister R.C. Dogra, was the chief guest at the event. He acknowledged that due to the involvement of NGOs, eye donation and transplantation has got a tremendous boost in the state.

Dr Ramesh, the Director of Punarjot Eye Bank, stated that the eye bank had the support of allies in the ‘war against blindness’ and due to which their eye bank is able to reach out to poor and needy patients in the rural areas of the state, where there are few eye specialists.