Sit-in protest to demand to re-open Chakimukh PHC

JOYSAGAR: The people of the greater Chakimukh, West Gelakey, Rajapul and Upor Nazira area staged a sit-in near the Chakimukh-Nazira PWD road on Monday in protest against government apathy towards healthcare services in these areas. The locals also demanded to re-open the Chakimukh PHC which was allegedly closed in 2016 by the Nazira subdivisional administration for some unknown reasons.

The Chakimukh PHC was built at a cost of about Rs 16 lakh in 1998 and there were eight medical wards. The Sivasagar District Health Department has been running this PHC with one MD doctor and another Ayurvedic doctor. Besides, there was one ANM, two staff nurses and three health workers in the PHC who rendered health services to the villagers. But for some unknown reason, this PHC was suddenly closed by the administration about three years ago.

The Chakimukh Nagarik Unnayan Samiti and the West Gelakey Tea Tribes Students’ Association members assimilated in the busy Chakimukh-Nazira road on Monday and staged a sit-in against the Nazira subdivisional administration and also against the Sivasagar Joint Director of Health Services as the Joint Director had allegedly been ignoring the local people’s pleas and did not take necessary steps to re-open the PHC.

Hundreds of local people took part in the protest and they said that health care was also a constitutional right and no government officer or local administration had any right to close suddenly down a PHC, thereby depriving villages from healthcare services.

Meanwhile, in the Banmukh area of Sivasagar town, the Banmukh Regional Matak Yuba Chatra Parishad also staged a protest against the State Health Department and demanded solution to the problems plaguing the area and Banmukh PHC. The Matak Yuba Chatra Parishad also submitted a memorandum to the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner on Monday where they demanded that proper healthcare services should be provided to patients in Banmukh PHC even at night. They demanded that the PHC should be declared as a 24-hour service government health centre.

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