RAYAGADA: An ailing 25-year-old tribal youth had to be carried in a saree suspended from a bamboo pole by his relatives as they could not avail the 108 ambulance service on Monday. They had to walk for a distance of eight kms to take the Dongria Kondh youth to Kalyansinghpur Community Health Centre (CHC) from Paramali village under Parshalli gram panchayat.
The youth identified as Pulaka Sikaka was suffering from fever for the last few days. As his condition deteriorated on Monday, four tribal youths carried him on the sling and crossed four km of the hilly terrain to reach motorable road where they called up 108 ambulance service. As the emergency vehicle did not turn up, they walked another four km to admit him in Kalyansinghpur CHC.
Locals alleged that in the absence of proper connectivity, Dongria Kondhs residing in Niyamgiri hills of Kalyansinghpur block are forced to carry patients on slings to hospitals.
Moreover, drivers of Government vehicles including ambulances are not willing to come to the villages in fear of Maoists. Earlier, the Red rebels had set construction vehicles on fire protesting development works in the area. Even construction of a proposed ‘Maa Gruha’ for pregnant women at Parshalli could not be taken up due to Maoist opposition, the locals said.