The residents of Bedar village of Poonch’s Mandi tehsil on Saturday staged a protest against “poor healthcare facilities” in the local new-type primary health centre.
The irked locals assembled on the Saujiyan-Mandi-Poonch road at Bedar and blocked it, while raising slogans against the health department. While talking to Greater Kashmir, they alleged, “The lone medical centre in the area, which is a new-type primary health centre, has been left on the mercy of God.”
They claimed, “The the posts of doctors in the PHC are lying vacant and we have been left with no other option but to visit Mandi and Poonch for basic issues. Why was the PHC set up if the government did not have enough doctors? How does it serve our purpose?”
While sitting on a dharna on the main road, the agitating villagers claimed that they had taken the issue up with the officials of the health department a lot of times, “but nothing has been done.”
At first, the block medical officer, Mandi, reached the spot and tried to pacify the protesters, but he got engaged in a heated exchange of words, which only worsened the situation. Later, tehsildar Mendhar and a team of police reached the spot and managed to pacify the protesters, by assuring them that a doctor will be deputed in the PHC within a day or two, while a permanent solution is provided.
Finally, the protest was called off after more than five hours.