Dikhyaa Mohanty 
It’s been fifteen years, Odisha declared itself a leprosy-free State, the Orissa High Court has appointed a three-member advocate committee to assess the living condition of leprosy patients and medical facilities available at leprosy colonies.
According to the official reports, the committee comprising senior advocates Bibhu Prasad Tripathy, Gautam Mishra and Pami Rath has been asked to visit the colonies and file a ground situation within two weeks.
The report further added that a Division Bench of Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice S. K. Panigrahi was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Bipin Bihari Pradhan, general secretary of Odisha Leprosy Welfare Federation, who had sought implementation of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP).
It further added that the petitioner had pointed out that while Odisha was quick to declare itself a leprosy-free State in 2006-07, it dismantled several posts of paramedical workers and field officers that earlier existed to deal with the situation.
In an affidavit, the State government had implicitly admitted that despite interventions through the NLEP and integrating it with the general health system, the incidence of leprosy had not gone down.
The petitioner had submitted that there was callous neglect by the State authorities to the medical and healthcare needs of leprosy patients as was evident from the fact that instead of a training programme of a minimum of four months for Leprosy Trained Paramedical Workers (LTPW), a three-day programme was devised to train Multi-Purpose Health Workers (MPHW) and two days’ training was given to Block Nodal Leprosy Worker (BNLW) to convert them into LTPWs.
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