Pattangi: India may have celebrated 79 years of freedom, but for residents of many remote Odisha villages, even basic access to healthcare remains a distant reality. With roads still failing to reach their homes, a sick woman had to be carried on a makeshift stretcher for about 10 km before she could reach a vehicle to take her to a hospital.
The incident was reported from the Jhangarguda area under Sunki panchayat in Pattangi block of Koraput district, located close to the Andhra Pradesh border.
The woman was ill for several days. With no vehicle able to reach the village, residents reportedly carried her for nearly 10 km to the nearest motorable road. From there, she was taken by an autorickshaw to Salur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for medical examination.
The episode has once again highlighted the difficulties faced by villagers who are still waiting for basic road connectivity despite repeated assurances from the government, elected representatives and local administration that roads would reach every village.
For the predominantly tribal population living in the village, several government welfare schemes remain largely inaccessible because of the lack of road connectivity. Residents have repeatedly approached the local administration seeking a road but say their appeals “have failed to bring any tangible improvement.”
People continue to depend on traditional means of carrying patients and face hardships in accessing healthcare and other essential services.
