Keran, Machil residents vote for women health, demand gynae services

Kupwara, Oct 1: The residents of border areas of north Kashmir's Kupwara district have been suffering due to a lack of better health facilities for the last several decades and on Tuesday people in the Keran and Machil sectors turned up to polling stations in large numbers with the hope of getting better and improved health facilities.

Voters who had arrived at polling stations said that people in the Keran sector had been suffering due to a lack of better healthcare facilities as a result of which they were suffering.

“The non-availability of a gynaecologist in the Keran sector is taking a heavy toll on the pregnant women and during heavy snowfall when Keran-Kupwara road remains closed for several days, we are forced to carry patients on makeshift cots to reach Ferkin Top and then board vehicles there to reach Kralpora or Kupwara for treatment,” Adil Ahmad, a youth, said.

“We have been demanding the posting of a gynaecologist at New Type Primary Health Centre (NTPHC) Keran for the last many years but to no avail,” another youth Ferhad said.

Similar voices echoed from the Machil area where voters moved to polling stations from early morning to get their long-pending demand redressed.

Former Sarpanch of Machil Habibullah said that the pregnant women of the area were suffering due to a lack of gynaecologists and authorities were doing nothing with regard to addressing the issue.

“Although a Primary Health Centre was established in the area that doesn’t suffice the needs of the locals with only a few doctors posted here. Whenever we approach concerned authorities for posting a gynaecologist at Primary Health Centre (PHC) Duddi, we are asked to return by saying that the said PHC doesn’t have a gynaecologist post. We hope that whosoever gets elected will redress our long pending issue of having services of a gynaecologist in Machil sector,” he said.