Bandipora: A pregnant woman from the snowbound area of Gurez in north Kashmir awaits being airlifted as her family stated she developed complications in her third month of pregnancy.
The family alleged they have been waiting for a month so that she could be airlifted to the district headquarters.
The family made a fresh appeal recently as weather improved and helicopters were able to land in Dawar.
There are some important medical tests not available in Gurez.
The Tuali region further uphill from the centrally located Dawar Tehsil in Gurez has been inaccessible since snowfall, and no chopper has landed in the valley to lift the patient or others with different exigencies.
Although sorties landed in Dawar to lift stranded passengers and patients no chopper reached Tulail despite the weather being clear intermittently, the locals said.
“The doctors have told us she needs tests and another checkup but no chopper is reaching Tulail,” Jameel Ahmad, the husband of the woman residing in Budugam village of Tulail said.
“I reached officers and other PRI members, and they promised that the helicopter will arrive to lift her but despite the wait, it hasn’t come,” worried Jameel said, adding, “nobody seems to pay any heed.”
The 84- kilometre Gurez-Bandipora road has been closed since early January after snowfall blocked the road. Dawar to Tulail road which is looked after by the mechanical department is also closed.
The BRO’s ‘full scale’ clearance of the Gurez-Bandipora road operation is dragging on due to adverse weather conditions, fast-blowing winds and snow avalanches
The Sub Divisional magistrate of the Gurez valley, however, said that they receive requisitions of critically ill patients from the BMO’s office stationed in the division. As per the official, no requisition from Tulail to airlift patients has been received.