SHILLONG: Garo Hills is an important part of Meghalaya with as many as five districts which send 24 MLAs to the 60-member Meghalaya Legislative Assembly but the entire region has only one government truck to transport medicines to different health centres and civil hospitals.
The sorry state of affair in healthcare in Garo Hills was intimated to the chairman of the State Planning Board, Lambor Malngiang, and other members who recently visited West Garo Hills for reviewing different schemes and programmes.
Talking to media persons here, Malngiang said they were informed by the department that they don’t have vehicle to carry medicines except one truck which is 8-9 years old and it is transporting medicines in the entire region.
Malngiang said it should be the responsibility of the suppliers to transport medicines to different health institutions and the Planning Board has decided to raise the matter with Health Minister AL Hek. A report will be submitted to the minister.
“We will also take up the matter with the chief minister when he returns to the capital,” Malngiang said.
He also lamented that there are many inaccessible areas where the truck cannot reach and medicines have to be carried on foot while informing that there were also 5-6 PHCs mostly in Baghmara which have been constructed but are yet to become functional.
The committee has also decided to visit Garo Hills region again to know the ground reality.
Meanwhile, the board members were also unhappy with the fact that beneficiaries and job card holders of MGNREGA have to come all the way to Tura town to withdraw their wages of Rs 300-400 since banks are not available in rural areas and most of the banks are confined within Tura town.
“We will have a meeting with the Reserve Bank of India and we will highlight these difficulties,” Malngiang said.
The Planning Board team also reviewed the progress of different schemes and also visited the site for Shillong Medical College and Ganol power project.
