BALURGHAT: With the aim to assist and help elderly people under Balurghat civic areas, district police on Friday launched the community development project Pronam at Balurghat police station. District police chief Debarshi Dutta said that around 30 percent of the towns elderly persons have been residing alone and facing serious concerns related to their safety, security and health. "We have launched the project Pronam for elderly people who are living alone under Balurghat civic areas covering all 25 wards. There will be a total of five clusters comprising five wards in each. A dedicated team is being formed to conduct a survey to know their exact number. After the survey, the people will get help cards, on which the contact numbers of police control room and police ambulance will be written," Dutta said. According to him, the elderly people can avail Night Cluster Helpline by calling up the respective numbers at night from 10 pm to 5 am. "This is a 24x7 service either for responding to any emergency faced by senior citizens for quick response and the effective follow-up, or providing a police ambulance service for them in case of medical emergency," he added. An official source said that the police are now being involved to prepare a detailed survey of the elderly people, so that they can approach them physically. The cops will visit them in their houses once an elderly person is registered under the project. "The police, apart from ensuring security to them, are also seeing to it that these people do not get depressed due to loneliness and health problems," he said. Apart from the district police chief, chairman of Mackintosh Burn Ltd Shankar Chakraborty, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Sukumar Dey, Balurghat Hospital superintendent Dr Tapan Kumar Biswas, popular local theatre personality Harimadhab Mukherjee along with many dignitaries and elderly people were present in the programme.

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