BY: Sajid Raina
Gurez: Residents of Chrowan village, located on the foothills of international border in Gurez area of Bandipora district, Wednesday complained that their village is deprived of having access to proper health facility while the patients including pregnant women are facing a lot of hardships in the extreme cold.
Pertinently, the residents recently boycotted the District Development Council (DDC) elections stated that the village has been ignored by the successive representatives and there is no visible development in the village.
The locals said they have to take patients to the nearest hospital that is located in Dawar area, some 8 kilometres away from Chrowan village.
“We could not even get out of our houses because of the heavy snowfall and taking a patient to a long-distance hospital is a very difficult task. Only God knows in what difficulties we live here in the winter without health facility,” they said.
Locals said they have to travel at least 8 km for treatment, even for minor ailments such as cough and cold.
“In case of dire emergencies, like pregnancies, it’s impossible to get quick medical attention,” says 31-year-old worried Saleema Begum.
“We can’t even tell our painful story. Here, when my daughter was sick, it was snowing outside. We were having a lot of trouble to reach the hospital,” she said.
“It seems that the government has forgotten us because we are the people of the border areas,” Tasleema, another local resident said.
She said that the government has failed to address the problems of common people in the remote village as they have been a victim of official apathy.
“For how long can the poor villagers have to wait to get proper health access,” Noor Mohammad, another resident said.
He also requested the Government to provide adequate medical facilities in the village as early as possible.
Meanwhile, the villagers appealed to the Deputy Commissioner Bandipora, Dr Owais Ahmad to personally look into the matter and help to resolve their genuine grievances—(KNO)
