| Despite being represented by former CM Khag tehsil denied Sub District Hospital | | 60,000 souls forced to visit Srinagar even for basic ailments | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 2: Despite the government claims of upgrading the health facilities across the length and breadth of the state a population of more than 60,000 living in a tehsil in Central Kashmir has been deprived of a Sub-District Hospital (SDH).
Khag is the only tehsil in Jammu & Kashmir state which has been deprived of an SDH with the rest of tehsil head quarters having this facility despite having less population than Khag tehsil. Khag is a hilly tehsil located at the foot hills of Pir Panjal and is about 45 kilometers away from Srinagar.
Presently, Khag is having a redundant Primary Health Center (PHC) where there are only seven doctors to look after 70 adjoining villages comprising a population of more than 60,000. The people as a whole are perplexed as how come seven doctors would be able to treat such a huge population.
"Over the past so many years people of Khag and adjoining villages like Drung, Gugaldara, Suthharan, Habber, Shonglipora, Sugin, Poshkar, Dalwash, Surish, Naserpora, Malpora, Sharan, Kokerbagh, Malpora, Naserpora, Khanpora, Fojipora, Saidwan and Traphy have been demanding a sub district hospital at Khag tehsil headquarter as the primary health center is lacking all the adequate facilities," said a group of people while sharing views with Early Times.
The people said that even for minor injuries, people have to move to Srinagar for treatment thus creating a lot of inconvenience for them. They said if the requisite facilities would have been able at Khag there was no need for them to move to Srinagar even for basic treatment.
"There is no fun in having a flagship programme like National Health Mission since the medicare facilities are not available to people of Khag tehsil at their doorsteps. People are facing more problems during winter months, when these far flung villages remain cut off from the tehsil head quarter," said the people.
The people said that PHC has no children specialist, surgeon, gynaeocologist, orthopedician and ophthalmologist. They said the PHC is without the equipment facilities like USG, ECG and modern dentist chair adding that the people have been left to face the problems.
"Some years back administrative department moved a file for up-gradation of PHC Khag upto the level of Community Health Centre (CHC), but that is still pending in administrative section. The PHC not only lacks the proper medical facilities but the center is without proper lighting and heating system," said the people.
The people said that politicians have over the years got votes with the promise of setting up an SDH in the area. They said that despite the fact that their constituency was represented by former chief minister Omar Abdullah no headway has been made with respect to setting up SDH at Khag.
"Our nearest tehsil Khan Sahib has been given sub-division, sub-district hospital and degree college while as we have been denied all these facilities. We raised this injustice many times in the past but nothing has been done so far," said the residents.
The residents said shifting of patients to Srinagar hospitals is very not easy for them as most of the population of the area is poor and a lot of money is wasted on travel. They said that many people in the past including expectant mothers died as they could not reach the health facility in time.
"Khag is a hilly area and most of the population lives below poverty line. If all the facilities were available here then there was no need to move to other hospitals of the valley. The difficulty is more with respect to pregnant woman and children of the area because of the unavailability of medical facilities," said the people. |
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