5-year-old girl dies as ambulance fails to reach her village sans motorable road

Though the state government claims to have built several roads in rural areas, the data shows that hundreds of villages do not have connectivity with major connecting roads. 

By Kambhudhar Kheti

Boudh, Oct. 13: In a heart-wrenching incident, a five-year-old girl hailing from Rairakhol area in Odisha’s Sambalpur district lost her life as she could not allegedly avail timely treatment. The treatment process of the unlucky girl was delayed as the ambulance that had gone to pick her up from home could not reach in time due to lack of a motorable road to her village.

As per reports, the little daughter of Arjun Dehuri, a resident of Kamalanali village, slipped into a dug-well while playing with her friends on Monday evening. Her family searched her after she went missing and finally traced her inside the well after hours.

Later, Arjun carried his daughter on his shoulders for around 2 km near the ambulance and rushed to the hospital. However, she was declared dead on arrival by the doctor.

“I walked for around 2-3 km carrying my daughter on my shoulders as the ambulance couldn’t reach us due to poor road connectivity. By the time we reached the hospital, she had breathed her last and the doctor declared her brought dead,” said Arjun.

“Though the Odisha government makes promises of providing better road connectivity in rural pockets, such a heart-wrenching incident belies the claims. There is no road connectivity in 1,242 villages in the state. This has also been admitted by state panchayati raj and drinking water minister Pratap Jena in the Assembly last year. This is high time, the government woke up from its slumber and ensured this basic infrastructure so that lives of people could be saved,” said state BJP spokesperson Dr Jatin Mohanty.

Though the state government claims to have built several roads in rural areas, the data shows that hundreds of villages do not have connectivity with major connecting roads. As a result, ambulances cannot reach the villages on time.

Rayagada district tops the list of unconnected villages with 181 followed by Jagatsinghpur with 179, Malkangiri with 150, Mayurbhanj with 100 and Koraput with 95 villages. As many as 24 of the 30 districts in the state have unconnected villages.

A senior official of the panchayati raj and drinking water department said the districts with hilly terrains, rivers and rivulets have these unconnected villages. Several villages coming under Left-wing extremism (LWE) areas do not have road connectivity, he added.