Bhawanipatna: The state government has been pushing rural development on a priority basis, but its efforts seem to have faltered in Kalahandi district. There are hundreds of villages in this district which are still inaccessible by ambulance in emergency cases, a report said.
According to the report, the state government has given push to the agriculture sector in the district by executing the Indravati irrigation project. Hundreds of hectares of farmlands are being provided irrigation facility under it. But communication has been a hurdle for development in 523 villages where healthcare has been a dream for people.
Official report said these tribal-dominated villages are extremely remote and inaccessible.
As ambulances do not get access to these villages, patients are carried on cots for kilometers. It is said that crores of rupees are being spent for road connectivity, healthcare, education and livelihood, but these facilities are almost missing in 14 remote villages under Kalahandi block.
Kesinga block has 11 inaccessible villages while number of inaccessible village is five in Karlamunda block.
There are 22 remote villages suffering from backwardness in all sectors in Narla block.
Redevelopment has taken a backseat in nine remote villages under Dharmagarh block where people have to suffer sans basic facilities.
Similarly, ambulance and fire tenders cannot get access to 10 villages under Junagarh block; 17 villages under Kalampur block; 15 villages under Koksara block and 22 villages under Jaypatana block.
It is alleged that there are scores of villages under Lanjigarh and Thualmula-Rampur blocks where people have not seen ambulance till date. Most of these areas are located in hilly terrains.
In these areas, many government schemes are dreams for the people. All they get is old age pension, Rs1/ kg rice and other subsidized food stuff.
However, after launching of boat ambulance in Indravati reservoir, people living in reservoir’s cut-off areas have been relieved in case of commuting facility.
PNN