Lanjigarh: In yet another case highlighting poor road connectivity in remote tribal areas, a woman gave birth on the roadside in Kalahandi district Saturday after an ambulance could not reach her village.
Officials said Janani Majhi of Podapadar village in Bijepur panchayat went into labour Saturday evening.
Her family called an ambulance, which arrived promptly but was forced to stop about a kilometre away at Bijepur Bazar Pada, as there is no motorable road to the village.
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Around 7pm, while being carried by relatives and local women along a narrow trail, Janani delivered a baby boy near a stream after walking about 500 metres.
She and the newborn were later taken to the waiting ambulance and shifted to Kalyansinghpur hospital in neighbouring Rayagada district.
The incident occurred barely six weeks after a similar case in Bhawanipatna block, where villagers had to carry a woman on a cot for 4 km to reach an ambulance.
August 19, another woman from Melbahali Bondel village in the same panchayat was also forced to walk a kilometre to reach an ambulance due to the absence of a road.
Residents said Podapadar village has 12 tribal families who have lived there for decades without proper roads, electricity, or schools.
“For serious patients and pregnant women, we have to carry them on cots to the main road.
Even government housing schemes cannot be implemented here because there is no road,” a villager said.
Locals claimed over 60 villages in the Lanjigarh block are still not connected with a proper road and urged the district administration to act immediately.
PNN
