Hyderabad: Lack of health centres ails Karkhana residents

Secunderabad: The residents of Karkhana especially slum dwellers are facing hardship due to lack of government health centres. As there is no Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) or Basti Dawakhana in the area, dwellers are forced to visit nearby private hospitals. Locals said that many representations were made to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board officials and also Secunderabad Cantonment MLA G Sayanna but all fell on deaf ears. Apart from this, the complete locality lacks basic civic amenities.

Locals pointed out that the proposal of a health centre is only on papers and no concrete measures have been taken yet to construct a health centre. Karkhana lacks basic amenities like proper internal roads, street lights and lack of proper drainage system.

Y Ramesh, a local of Karkhana said "We are vexed by sending representations and requests to the concerned officials to construct a health centre. We are forced to visit government-run health clinics in another ward at SCB. The officials are only giving false promises that they would construct a health centre but no concrete action has been taken. If a Basti Dawakhana comes up at Karkhana then it would be helpful to many people."

Mohammed Ahmed Sharif, social worker and resident of Karkhana said "It seems that the SCB is playing with the lives of locals residing in this area. The residents residing here are almost slum dwellers who are struggling hard to travel to other localities for treatment. We want a UPHC as we cannot afford to go to the nearby private clinics or hospitals. The government hospitals are also way too far from the colony. Whenever there is an emergency, locals are forced to travel almost 10-15 km for getting treatment at the closest government hospital."

Ahmed Ali, another resident of Karkhana said "Basti Dawakhana or UPHC is our basic need. Apart from this the entire localities internal roads are in bad condition. During the layout of the colony the roads were laid and till date there is no change due to which the locals over here are facing hardship to commute. The colony also needs proper internal sewage pipelines."