THE NGO sector of Orissa has vehemently opposed the bureaucrats of the health and family welfare department of the state after they returned Rs 33 crore out of the Rs 60 crore grant for the 'blindness control programme' of the World Bank. The department said that it could not use the money whereas a lot of hospitals in Orissa are lacking in modern eye-testing facilities. The blindness control society in all 30 districts of the state is working with meagre support and is almost always in a situation of cash crunch. Except for Brahmapur, Cuttack and Rourkela, there are no proper eye hospitals in the state. The returning of money in such dire circumstances has created a lot of dissatisfaction in the NGO circles of the state.
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