TURA, Oct 9: Preparations to make operational the crucial Jengjal community health centre, 35 kms from Tura, is being hampered, reportedly by a group of local rabble-rousers who continue to create stumbling blocks by opposing its handover to doctors from the Garo Hills Adventist Mission, belonging to the famous CMC Vellore medical hospital in Tamil Nadu, over unsubstantiated allegations and demands for compensation from the government.
It may be mentioned that Jengjal is also located at a crucial junction connecting North, East and West Garo Hills districts. It is also the only place in Garo Hills with an airport, currently non-functional.
The state government had last month signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a group of doctors from Vellore to make functional the Jengjal hospital, which has remained unutilised for years.
The sub-divisional hospital is to become a major referral centre, which will host a number of specialists and house a pre-fabricated 50-bed set-up.
However, a recent survey by engineers from the Directorate of Health Services to repair the dirt track that leads from the highway to the hospital witnessed ugly scenes when a handful of men from the area vehemently opposed the running of the hospital by Vellore doctors, hurled abuses and threatened the survey team.
The dissent is apparently over compensation by way of jobs for the members of the clan which gave the land for the hospital.
“Instead of taking up their problem with the government, they harassed the survey team, the engineer and the doctors who have no stake in their issue,” narrated a medical official.
Although the state government has reportedly provided employment to some of the members directly involved in the land acquisition, others too are now demanding their share.
The CMC Vellore doctors, who have been running a nursing home in the heart of Jengjal town for the past couple of years, are unable to expand and set up new departments for want of space. There have been regular visits by surgeons and specialists from Vellore who have had to return without being able to treat patients due to paucity of space.
Currently, it is the only hospital in the entire Garo Hills which has three paediatricians and a gynaecologist from Vellore.
