Changing Dantewada: ‘Sugam Swasthya Dantewada Yojana’ has emerged as a great relief for the people living in dense forests and remote areas

Raipur: “Sugam Swasthya Dantewada Yojana” has emerged as a great relief for the people living in dense forests and remote areas of the worst Maoist-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. The scheme was started on 20 July 2020 to provide easy availability of healthcare services to people living in inaccessible areas of the district especially pregnant mothers and accident victims.

At present, the district has a total of 26 ambulances. Dantewada has 239 villages and 143 Gram Panchayats having 76 sub-health centers, 13 primary health centers, four community health centers, one maternity and child hospital, and one district hospital. The facility of 05 Sanjeevani Express 108 ambulance and 08 Mahtari Express 102 is available in the district.

However, these ambulances couldn’t reach sensitive and inaccessible areas on time. To overcome the problem, the district administration has started the ‘Sugam Swasthya Dantewada’ scheme. Now, with the commencement of this scheme, people living in such areas can now call the owner of the vehicle in their neighborhood or near the village and go to the hospital. The said vehicle owner is given a reasonable fare fixed by the administration in the lieu of this service.

So far, about Rs 92,600 have been paid to 249 vehicle owners in the district through which about 251 patients have reached the hospital on time. Now people don’t have to worry about the arrival of ambulances in case of emergencies.