MAWKYRWAT: The Khasi Students Union (KSU) Mawkyrwat Circle on Tuesday demanded immediate appointment of a full-fledged District Medical & Health Officer (DM&HO) threatening otherwise to close down the office here.
The student body sent the message to the government during a sit-in demonstration organised by it here to protest against the government’s inability to appoint the full-fledged health officer for almost one year.
They also demanded that the government speed up construction and inauguration of the 100-bed hospital which has been pending for eight years.
“We have submitted many memoranda to the health minister and also to the director of health services requesting to appoint the full-fledged DM&HO so that the health department in our district will function properly, but all our efforts were in vain as the government ignored us. This peaceful protest is the first step of our agitation and we demand that the government should immediately appoint the officer failing which stern action will be taken, even to lock down the office of the in-charge DM&HO. We don’t want the in-charge DM&HO because the functioning of the health department here is full of flaws and we want a full-fledged officer,” KSU Mawkyrwat Circle president, Elevenson Wanniang said while addressing his members during the sit-in.
Wanniang also said that the KSU has demanded expeditious construction and inauguration of the hospital and also sanctioning of the posts to benefit the people. He said that as of now, many patients have to sleep on the floor or passage because there are not enough beds in the CHC.
Meanwhile, president of the KSU South West Khasi Hills District, Forwardman Nongrem, thanked all traditional healers in Mawkyrwat area and in different parts of the district for saving many lives when no doctors were available in PHCs and CHCs in the district. Speaking about the pending hospital, Nongrem said the Union had also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister when he visited Mawkyrwat, but sadly the government has not paid attention to the problems faced by the people here. “We all know that ‘health is wealth’ and there is nothing more important than health. But it is very sad to see that the government did not take this issue seriously,” Nongrem said.
He also said that the absence of the DM&HO was the main reason that the CHCs, PHCs and sub-centres in the district do not function properly. Therefore, the immediate appointment of the health officer is the need of the hour to solve all the problems within the health department.
Nongrem also said that the Union has asked both the MLAs and MDCs of Mawkyrwat and Ranikor constituencies to solve the problems. “The promises they made during election campaigns of bringing good health to the people are all lies. We demand that the MLAs and MDCs do something about these problems that the people of the district are facing which has even forced the youths to come out on the street to agitate,” he said.
While saying the KSU South West Khasi Hills district fully supports the Mawkyrwat Circle on the issues, Nongrem said he expects that the people of the district right from the headmen should lend support because these issues affect the general public. “These are not issues that only the KSU should lose sleep over, these are issues that affect all the people of the district,” Nongrem said as he warned that if the state government did not pay attention to this peaceful protest, a time will come when they will protest through action.
Others who spoke included chairman of the Synjuk Seng Samla Shnong, South West Khasi Hills District, Wallambok Syiemiong, and general secretary of the KSU Mawkyrwat Circle, Rutherford Lyngdoh.
