BHUBANESWAR: As the situation in Kashipur block of Rayagada district affected by cholera worsened, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Sunday targeted the state government for not initiating any steps to strengthen the health infrastructure in the region.
A fact finding team from the OPCC led by former MLA Bhujabal Majhi, which visited the diarrhoea and cholera-affected areas of the district, maintained that besides the intake of contaminated water, there are several other reasons behind the spread of the disease.
The Congress leaders alleged that the community health centre (CHC) at the block headquarters of Kashipur does not have doctors and necessary medical staff. Alleging that the posts of doctors at the CHC were vacant long before the spread of diarrhoea this time, the Congress leaders targeted the government for not initiating any step to fill up the vacancies.
Alleging that all the 418 villages of Kashipur block do not have any safe drinking water source, the Congress team alleged that the mega water project announced by the state government in 2018 is yet to materialise. At Panchali village in Sagada gram panchayat, five out of six tubewells are defunct, they said and added that 300 families depend on a single tubewell for their water requirement.
Referring to government claim that food requirement of the people is being taken care of by the welfare programmes, the fact finding team alleged that hundreds of families are deprived of getting any benefits out of these. Though huge funds are being spent under MGNREGS, people still migrate to other regions in search of jobs, they added.