BERHAMPUR: The Ganjam administration seems to have finally woken up to the plight of tribal villagers in Dhobalingi village of the district.
Ganjam Collector Prem Chandra Choudhury held a meeting at Chhatrapur on Thursday and directed the civil supply officials to immediately provide PDS commodities in the remote village under Patrapur block of Chikiti Assembly segment. He directed other officials concerned to conduct awareness camps on health and education schemes among villagers of Dhobalingi and nearby villagers which are equally remote. The Collector said another meeting with the Rural Development department officials will be held on Saturday to examine the possibility of construction of all-weather road to Dhobalingi. Surrounded by hills, one has to walk more than 15 km to reach the village from Patrapur via Tumba-Buratal. The village houses 18 tribal families.
On Wednesday, two persons of the remote village who are suffering from the unknown disease were admitted to City Hospital in Berhampur. A villager, Surendra Bhuyan, and his five family members are suffering from unknown disease but had not received any medical help as health staff do not visit the village often and there is no health centre nearby.
After their plight was published in these columns on Monday, Patrapur BDO Lalit Kumar Kanhar and a medical team visited the village. They admitted Surendra’s wife Jamuna and his one-and-half-year-old son Rabindra to Patrapur hospital. While Jamuna’s condition is serious, Rabindra is malnourished and weighs only 5.6 kgs. Later in the day, both the mother and son were shifted to the nutrition assistance centre of City Hospital in Berhampur for further treatment.
The medical team collected blood samples of other villagers and 27 of them tested positive for malaria. Medicines were provided to the affected persons and they were asked to drink boiled water and maintain sanitation in the village.