PHC Drubgam is homeless

Bizarre it sounds but that is a fact. One cannot imagine that a Government office is not allowed by the people of two rival villages to enter and settle down in the building constructed for it under the orders of the Government. The building of the Public Health Centre was built some time ago in Drubgam village in Pulwama district. But owing to conflicting claims of two villagers, it became difficult for the Medical Department to shift the Health Centre to its new house. It is difficult t decide whether it is unbridled democracy or lawlessness that has kept the Health Centre waiting for almost nine years outside the home and even now the situation is  unclear whether the entire Health Centre will be able to shift sooner than later in the new building. Such is the allurement for vote bank that neither the Government nor the department concerned nor the elected representatives of the area are able to resolve the deadlock and let people have the facility of proper medical aid. The building was completed nine years ago and because shifting of the Healthcare Centre was stonewalled by the villagers, it had to be abandoned. No Government agency took the responsibility of asking what would happen to the abandoned building on which crores of rupees have been spent.
This abandoned building has become the meeting place of drug addicts, gamblers, anti-social elements and miscreants of all sorts one may imagine. Its windows and door have been pulled out or damaged and the floor and walls have been vandalized. In a sense the building has been made uninhabitable. It reflects the height of irresponsibility and non seriousness of the Government. The Health Department did not show the little alertness of engaging the services of a chowkidar at least to take care of the building till a decision was made. A guard or a chowkidar could have been appointed for the purpose on temporary basis and he could have been regularized in due course of time.
Obviously the Chief Medical Officer of Pulwama could not do much in the case when the people of two villages were determined to fight it out in whose jurisdiction the Health Centre would fall. In particular when the case was brought to the court for adjudication the role of the Chief Medical Officer was no more to be there. Actually, it was the Revenue Department that had to decide to which village the Centre would be assigned. But alas1 nobody in the Government was prepared to take up the issue and the villagers were recalcitrant enough not to come to some agreement. This is called politicization of an administrative issue.
Our villagers are already facing many hardships owing to non availability of health centres are accessible distance. They have to travel long distances to reach a medical centre to treat the patients, But how ironical when the Government provides the health centre, equipment and the medical staff, a situation arises which makes all these efforts meaningless. It is nothing but the imbecility of the Government to let things drift to a chaotic situation. Did not any Health Minister find time during past nine years to pay a visit to the site, see the situation with his eyes and feel inclined to break the logjam? After all, the Government cannot surrender its authority and power and policy to the whims and unbridled wishes of the people. We can very easily infer from the contours of this story that there is politics at the root of the entire episode. Spineless leadership is incapable of resolving even the smallest of issue leave aside the major ones.

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