Gram panchayat in Shahapur to pay for Covid-19 treatment of every villager

Khativali gram panchayat is going the extra-mile to ensure the villagers affected by Covid-19 get proper treatment

Khativali gram panchayat is going the extra-mile to ensure the villagers affected by Covid-19 get proper treatment. The gram panchayat has decided to pay for testing, hospitalisation, treatment and medicines of Covid-19 patients from the village. The administration has asked the families to send bill receipts to them which will be reimbursed. The panchayat said the initiative is to stand strong by the villagers to encourage people to get tested to ensure timely treatment to avoid fatalities.

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Khativali village in Shahapur taluka, Thane has a population of around 6,000 villagers; around 45% of them are tribals. There is only one Covid treatment centre in Shahapur taluka and it is 8kms away from the village. If the centre gets full, villagers do not have any other option but to get admitted in a private hospital, but as they could not pay such a huge amount they would avoid going there. Therefore, this administration has assured to pay the hospital bills.

There are 6,660 cases of Covid-19 reported in Shahapur Taluka of which 241 are currently active. Around 170 people have died due to the infection.

Devidas Jadhav, 43, member of Khativali gram panchayat, said, “Since last year, most of our villagers have lost their jobs. We completely banned the entry of outsiders, and still some people got infected. Twelve of our villagers succumbed to Covid in the first wave. Since the past one month, two to three villagers are testing positive every day. They had gone out mostly to look for jobs. They or their families do not have the proper resources to get tested or treated. So we have decided to help them for the same.”

Gajanan Shinde, a villager, said, “This announcement has provided relief to us as most of us have earned very little in the past one year, and we are using the same for daily groceries. To arrange money for treatment is really a task but now we are little relaxed.”