By Sunil Sonker
Mussoorie, 11 May: In light of the expanding footprint of the Covid-19 pandemic and in order to know the health services in the nearby villages of Mussoorie, a Garhwal Post team visited the village of Basaghat, 8 kilometres from here. It became evident that the condition of health services is worsening.
On Monday, a corona-infected elderly person died on the way to the hospital, but corona tests of the villagers were not conducted by the Health Department, nor was the village inspected. There is a lot of anger among the villagers against the government and administration in this regard.
Health services in dozens of villages around Mussoorie are in disarray because of the lack of transport facilities. People are not able to reach hospitals, due to which many people are unable to get the treatment and villagers are not getting vaccinated. The population of Basaghat village and surrounding area is above 500, where corona infected patients are being found continuously. But the health department and the administration are not paying attention to this. Neither has the area been sanitised nor have corona tests been conducted by the administration.
Villagers say that the people of the village have been abandoned by the government. Many times requests to set up camps in the area for the testing of Corona and vaccination have been made, but no one is willing to listen to the villagers. The hospital in Mussoorie is quite far away and due to Corona curfew there is no means of transportation. The elderly and women are unable to get treatment in the hospital. Corona-infected patients have been given only corona kits by the administration, but facilities have not been provided to the corona infected. The local Asha worker said that the village has difficult terrain. She walks many kilometres on foot, but has not been provided any means of transportation. She said that it is becoming very difficult to work to serve the people in rural areas.
Local representative Rakesh Rawat said there are about 2500 people in Kyarkuli Bhatta village and about 50 to 60 corona infected patients. The Health Department was asked to set up a camp in the village area for corona test and vaccination. He said that, through him, some medicines have been made available to the people but there was no government support. He also urged local MLA and Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi to set up a corona test camp and vaccination facilities in the area.