BSF launches boat ambulance service in Odisha’s Maoist-hit Malkangiri district
The ambulance will facilitate emergency medical services to around 10,000 people, mostly tribals
BY A ISWAR RAO
MALKANGIRI, JAN. 27: The Border Security Force (BSF) deployed in Odisha’s Maoist-hit Malkangiri district on Wednesday launched a boat ambulance service in the Balimela reservoir for the people living in Swabhiman Anchal.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of BSF, Sanjay Singh inaugurated the boat ambulance service near Gurupriya bridge in the Swabhiman Anchal.
The ambulance will facilitate emergency medical services to around 10,000 people in the area, he said.
The DIG Mr Singh said that the BSF Director General Pankaj Kumar Singh, who visited the area, had realised that the people of the Swabhimaan Anchal should be provided with medical facilities as patients face a lot of difficulties to cross the reservoir to visit hospitals in Chitrakonda.
“The BSF will meet the emergency health requirement of the people with the help of the district administration. The BSF also appeals to the people of the area to take benefit of the facility,” the BSF DIG said.
Swabhiman Anchal is a long patch of land comprising 151 villages mostly inhabited by tribals. The patch of land had until a few years ago remained cut-off from the mainland after the Balimela reservoir came into being in 1977. After decades, the turning point came in 2018 when the Gurupriya bridge was built under heavy protection of BSF troops, making it possible for residents of most of the villages to have access to the mainland. However, some villages still find it time consuming to take the bridge route to reach the mainland for essential services.
The boat ambulance service will be available between two ends of Balimela reservoir. Around 10,000 residents of over 35 villages near the reservoir in the cut-off area will be benefited.
Though the state government has opened the Guripriya bridge, most of the people are unable to get ambulance service due to lack of roads to get to the mainland. They used to carry ailing persons to hospitals on slings or bamboo stretchers through forest areas.
The boat ambulance service will be available seven days a week. Contact numbers for the service will be displayed on the boat ambulance while contact numbers of BSF officers will be circulated among the villagers.
The boat is equipped with medical oxygen cylinders, a drip system, emergency medicines, a doctor, paramedical staff and stretchers. The BSF officers will arrange an ambulance to shift the patients to the nearby hospital once they cross the Balimela reservoir, they said.
The BSF jawans have been deployed in Odisha since 2010 and assisting anti-Maoist operations and ensuring implementation of the developmental works in Maoist infested areas.
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Photograph: BSF DIG Sanjay Singh launching boat ambulance service in Odisha’s Swabhiman Anchal
