As Govt fails to pay rent, hospital operates from roadside

A view of the newly constructed building of Sub Centre Narastan in South Kashmir's Tral town.
A view of the newly constructed building of Sub Centre Narastan in South Kashmir's Tral town.

Sub Centre in Tral lacks basic infra

Suhail Bhat
Tral, Dec 24: Contrary to the claims of the Government about providing best medicare to people in rural areas, Family Welfare and Sub Centre in Narastan village of South Kashmir’s Tral town craved for infrastructure for last six years.
An official at the Health Centre said for last one week they have been treating people on roadsides after they were thrown out of the rented accommodation. The owner of the place has some rental issues with the department hence he threw us out of the building”, an official said, adding we have no other alternative place to work from.
The locals of the area said that in the 2012, the Government sanctioned a new building for the Health Centre but despite completing the construction work the building was never put to use. “It shows how callous the authorities are towards the health care of remote areas. The authorities abandoned the building soon after they completed the construction work”, Rafiq Ahmad, a local said, adding the place these days is being used by the anti-social elements.
An official at the Roads and Buildings department said so far nearly Rs 22 lakh have been spent on the building and apart from the finishing works, the building is complete. “Once the major part of the construction work has been completed the department could not maintain the proper upkeep and some unscrupulous people damaged the doors and windows of the building but they will be fixed soon”, he said, adding within one-two months the pending works on the building will be completed.
The residents, however, charged successive Governments for overlooking their problems. “We live nearly 16 kilometers from the district headquarters in the foothills of a mountain. It’s tough for the authorities to reach here, so they have left us at God’s mercy”, a local said.
Pertinently, the patients in Sub-district hospital Tral also suffered due to lack of doctors and other medical facilities in the hospital.
Chief Medical Officer Pulwama, Talat Jabeen, when contacted said they are already working on it and the construction work will resume after a few days. “I personally visited the place last week and after some days the pending work will be taken up. Presently, we are clearing the past liabilities,” she said.
Asked if they have plans to upgrade to Health Center she said: “The feasibility report is not in its favor. For the up-gradation, we need to have a population of nearly 50,000. The village has less than 5000 population,” she said.

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