Red Cross at the government’s `rescue’ First Aid units to be set up at college level for accident victims

Red Cross at the government’s `rescue’ First Aid units to be set up at college level for accident victims Nitesh Sangral Jammu, August 22: With most of the proposals formulated by the state government for timely action in road mishap cases remaining confined to the official files, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of Indian Red Cross Society (ICRC) is offering its help to impart training to college students to create manpower capable of providing first aid to disaster victims. Officials said that these units can also help in dealing with the weather related calamities and volunteers for the blood donation can be found within the units itself. In last five years close to 5,000 persons have been killed in different road mishaps particularly on Batote-Kishtwar highway and inter-districts road within the mountainous region of Chenab Valley. These specific units work under supervision of society and are being equipped with first aid kits and necessary training to deal with the various tragedies including road mishaps. Senior Red Cross officials said that the project was formulated after a detailed study of various death cases in natural or man made tragedies. Society has so far trained 600 youth in disaster management, without any help from the government. Most of the students are studying in various degree colleges in Jammu region, where the ICRC has established its units. “In most of the cases the victims in rural areas do not get medical attention in time which also sometimes lead to death”, officials said. Anil Padha, Honorary Secretary of the society said, “Our goal is to save the lives of accident victims, by providing necessary training to the students so that they can provide immediate help. Most of the people involved in rescue operations have little knowledge about how to deal with the injured”. “Border districts which have poor road infrastructure and mountainous terrain have witnessed more accidents, which have caused many deaths over the years and at times government has also failed to act in providing enough men and material”, said an official.