Tribals demand officials to end their ‘doli’ woes

Anakapalli: It took hours for the family members of Killo Devi (29) of Petrugedda village, Rolugunta mandal of Anakapalli district to carry the recently-delivered woman in a ‘doli’ (a makeshift stretcher) to the nearest health centre as she developed health complication midnight.

Seeking the support of her husband K Ramesh and relative K Raju, Devi was shifted to Butchayyapeta Primary Health Centre on Thursday along with her newborn.

Trekking 6-km-long road, she was carried in a ‘doli’ by her family members to gain access to an ambulance service. As there was no sign of the ambulance reaching on time, Devi and her family members mounted an auto-rickshaw to reach the health centre.

Like Devi, women in Arla panchayat find it tough to access roads or health centres or ambulance service to meet their emergency needs.

For years, the tribals living in this region have been suffering from lack of transport. In addition to the absence of proper roads, women have to go through a great ordeal to reach the hospital in times of any contingency. The situation of pregnant women is even worse.

In several panchayats of the tribal region, the locals have teamed up to lay roads by themselves, while stretches of the roads were laid by the department officials.

Sharing the challenges experienced by the tribals for decades, CPM district executive committee member K Govinda Rao mentioned that the demand to facilitate road in rural pockets will be raised at the Zilla Parishad general body meeting scheduled on October 24.

Tribals residing in remote villages lament that they have been facing problems due to inaccessible roads and proper health facilities. They demand that the officials concerned should consider concrete action to put an end to their decade-long woes.