Hyderabad: In desperate need of Basti Dawakhana

Rajendranagar : Despite having two major slums in the area with over 30,000 populations, Shastripuram in Rajendranagar constituency is yet to get its 'Basti Dawakhana'. Locals have been asking the authorities to come up with one such facility, ever since the pandemic broke out.

"It was proposed to provide one basti dawakhana each for the population of five to ten thousand in slum areas. However, despite having a staggering population of over 34,000, the Shastripuram ward fails to get any such facility, while people residing here are forced to travel to far flung areas to getting medical check-up and in case of health emergency," rued Syed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Shastripuram Colony.

Shastripuram ward carries a total of 34,777 votes. This ward, under south zone area, is considered as a poverty-ridden area owing to the huge area of slums like Owaisi Hills, Ansari Road and B K Puram besides part of Hassanagar located close to historic Mir Alam Lake.

"People in the area completely depend on private clinics sans any specialist. For issues bigger than fever and cough, we have to take a long route to Attapur or other place in city to get diagnosed. Barring one or two clinks no proper medical facilities are available here locally," said Mir Mushtaq, another resident of the same area.

There are a total of seven basti dawakhanas in the entire Rajendranagar circle that include Panduranga Nagar, Budwel, Manikyamma Colony, Premavathipet, Gagan Pahad, APCO Colony and Markandeya Nagar. However, no such facility is available in Shastripuram ward.

Though there exists an upper primary health center at Hassan nagar area under Shastripuram but that would not be sufficient to cater the need of dense population that spreads around three kilometers of area.