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Haryana: Chautala villagers walk 290 km to protest poor medical facilities
Chautala villagers alleged that five sitting MLAs, including Haryana deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, belong to their village but their community health centre in the village does not have doctors. They alleged that due to poor medical facilities, three newborn children had died
Hundreds of residents of Chautala village in Sirsa district walked for 11 days and covered 290km and reached Karnal on Monday to protest poor facilities at government hospital in their village.
A high-voltage drama was witnessed outside the chief minister’s residence as the police had to use mild force to stop the protesters.
The protesters alleged that five sitting MLAs, including deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, belong to their village but their community health centre in the village does not have doctors. They alleged that due to poor medical facilities, three newborn children had died and they had to go to private hospitals for treatment.
In an interaction with mediapersons, activists Rakesh Phagodia and Prem Sukh Godara alleged that a total 11 posts of specialist doctors have been created in the CHC but there are no doctors. Even several posts of paramedical staff had been lying vacant at the CHC for the past several months. They claimed that due to the lack of doctors and infrastructure, the CHC, which is the hospital in 35 villages, has become only a referral centre.
They said they had taken up the issue on several occasions but to no avail, following which they had to take out a protest march on December 21 to the chief minister’s residence in Karnal.
However, a heavy police deployment was made to prevent the protesters from reaching the residence of the chief minister. Earlier, they assembled near the railway overbridge on the Kaithal road and started their march towards the CM’s residence, but stopped a few metres away from the house, where they staged a dharna.
Also, several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activists and former Haryana AAP president Naveen Jaihind came out in their support. Addressing the gathering, Jaihind said several leaders belong to the Chautala village but there is nobody to hear grievances of the residents of the village.
