Pune: Lieutenant General Bipin Puri, Director General Armed Forces Medical Service, on Saturday said facilities for ‘Divyang’ soldiers are being increased in armed forces and the Pune-based Artificial Limb Centre (ALC) is playing a pioneer role.
He was speaking during the inauguration of Continuing Rehabilitation Education (CRE) programme on the occasion
of 75th Raising Day of ALC near the Command Hospital in Wanowrie. ALC is looking after amputees and other
locomotor disabled patients from the forces and civilians.
According to statistics, around 200 soldiers become disabled due to injuries suffered in the line of duty every year. A few months ago the only ALC in Pune used to address problems related to disability of limbs. Now its sub-centres have been established in Delhi, Jammu, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Guwahati. “We are upgrading the capacity of the sub-centres by providing financial and technological assistance,” he added.
AFMC Dean Major General Madhuri Kanitkar, Air Marshal RS Grewal, Maj Gen SA Lamba and Brigadier AC Singh of the
ALC were present during the event.
Officers from Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Command Hospital Southern Command, other military
establishments and medical students from Pune and Mumbai attended the programme. Lt Gen Puri inaugurated an exhibition where prosthetics and equipment were on display.
Continuing Rehabilitation Education
The two-day Continuing Rehabilitation Education-2019 programme took off on Saturday. It has provided an opportunity for experts and practitioners of multiple medical disciplines concerned with amputee rehabilitation to share the best practices in this field.
According to ALC officials, eminent practitioners of allied specialities like surgery, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, psychiatry and dermatology are also participating in the event. The eminent speakers include luminaries like Major General SK Jain (Retired); Dr SL Yadav from All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi; Dr Subodh Kumar, Deputy Director Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), New Delhi; Dr Mrinal Joshi from Rehabilitation Research Centre, SMS Medical College, Jaipur; and Dr VTK Titus, Orthopaedic Surgeon from CMC Vellore to name a few.
History of ALC
ALC is a pioneer rehabilitation institute catering for needs of amputees and other locomotor disabled patients.
It was set up in 1944 to provide artificial limbs, appliances and rehabilitative care to the gallant disabled soldiers of the Indian Army. It witnessed re-location to Kirkee in 1945 and then to Lahore in 1946. After the Partition, the centre was re-established at its present location in Pune in 1948.
