For better med service, social activists send missive to PM in blood

KANPUR Social activist Tara Patkar and members of the Bundeli Samaj, who have been on a fast for the last 531 days demanding statehood for Bundelkhand, has shot

KANPUR Social activist Tara Patkar and members of the Bundeli Samaj, who have been on a fast for the last 531 days demanding statehood for Bundelkhand, has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in blood again seeking his intervention in the upgradation of medical services in Mahoba.

HT Image

This is the fourth time such a letter was sent to the Prime Minister, said Patkar, a former journalist-turned-activist fighting for the statehood to Bundelkhand.

He has been observing fast for the last 531 days at the Alha Chowk and had been walking barefooted for the last five years as part of his ‘Hathyog Satyagrah’.

Mahoba was made a district 25 years ago but the hospital in the district was no better than a community health centre, Patkar said adding the sanctioned strength of doctors was 30 but only nine were posted.

He said the government in the past had announced a medical college in the district but the plan could not move further as rules required a 200 bed hospital for a medical college but the existing one is equipped with only 70-bed facility.

“The people of Mahoba have been fighting for long for better medical services in one of most backward regions. We went for a hunger strike that stretched for 239 days,” he said.

Demanding better medical facilities, he said all the public representatives elected in the last 25 years should publicly apologise to the people for their failure in ensuring basic facilities to them.

Dr Ajay Sarsaiya, Suresh Soni, Siddhant Tripathi, , Krishna Shankar Joshi, Mohammad Azeem also wrote letters with their blood.