Agartala, May 1 -- In a move aimed at expediting welfare services for cancer patients, Tripura government inaugurated a dedicated Help Desk at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Regional Cancer Hospital in Agartala on Thursday.

Social Welfare Minister Tinku Roy, while inaugurating the facility, told ANI, "Earlier, cancer patients who came for treatment under old social pension schemes had to stay for extended periods--sometimes up to a month--as cancer treatment cannot be completed in a few days. Once they returned home and applied for pensions, it often took three to five months for the sanction to come through, and tragically, many patients did not survive long enough to receive the benefits."

He said this new initiative aims to eliminate such ...