No roads, no ambulances: Only bikes are used during medical emergencies
VARANASI: There are around 60 villages in Sonbhadra with no access to ambulances because there are no connecting roads. The villagers use a motorcycle or bicycle to rush the patients to the hospital in the town 10 to 15 km away. Such hapless hamlets include Shilpi, Gurdah, Jharpiya, Murgi Dand and Jorba in Jugail area. Basin, Bhaktinia, Auradandi, Ghichorva and Nawatola villages in Duddhi area are places where even a bike cannot reach. The locals use cots to rush the patients to the hospital.
Ramji Singh, a local BJP leader and resident of Shilpi says, “The ambulance doesn’t reach our village. If anyone falls ill, the locals have to depend on the tractor or a Pick-Up van to rush the patient to the hospital in Ghorawal. The gullible locals are devoid of free ambulance facility because of no connecting roads to villages like mine in difficult hilly and forest areas in the district.”
Another villager Meena Devi cannot recall a time when an ambulance ever visited her village.
“My village is located amid hills. There is no direct connecting road. We have to walk three km to reach the connecting road to Ghorawal. There should be some arrangement so that the ambulance can reach the village and locals may avail of the facility,” she says.
Shyam Bihari Singh of Gurdah says locals have to choose between a bike or a tractor as a means of transportation to rush the ailing person to hospital in Chopan, around 20 km away from the hilly village because ambulance cannot reach his village.
Three months back, when Singh’s father Lale Singh (65) took ill, he rushed him to the hospital in Chopan on a bike, he recalls, adding that it took him around three hours to reach the hospital. Villages like Ghichorava, Basin and Nawatola which are situated in hilly and forest areas, also lack link roads.
Vimal Kumar, a resident of Muhali, a nearby town, says the locals from these villages use cots to rush the patients to the hospital in Muhali or Duddhi.
Officials of the district administration conducted a survey across the district and mapped the villages in the hilly terrains where the ambulances cannot reach. A total of 60 such villages have been identified in the district. The survey was carried out on the initiative of district magistrate S Rajalingam.
The DM has also taken the initiative to ensure ambulances reach these areas. “We are going to deploy specially designed and modified ambulances and mobile medical units for the 60 villages situated in the rough terrains of the district to ensure reach of the ambulance to these areas so that the locals may get advantage of the service.”
“We have also decided to deploy bike ambulances with paramedical staff so that they can reach the villages in case of need and provide healthcare to the locals,” Rajalingam adds.
He says that the action required for this has already been taken. In the meantime, he has also held a meeting with officials of departments concerned to ensure construction of connecting roads to villages wherever possible.
He has instructed the forest department to seek clearance from the ministry of forests and environment for providing land required to construct link roads to the villages.
A TOTAL OF 60 SUCH VILLAGES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED IN THE DISTRICT WHERE AMBULANCES CANNOT REACH