Tired of waiting for Government’s help, residents of Batijoda village in Jajpur district funded and constructed a hospital in their village after their repeated pleas fell on deaf ear of the officials and leaders.
When politicians and bureaucrats ignored the repeated requests to build a hospital, the villagers decided to team up and take matters in their own hands. They collected around Rs 3 lakh to build a pucca three- room hospital building.
The villagers claimed that a proposal of a hospital was hanging for decades and from local representatives to public authorities, none did anything to help in the matter.
Batijoda village is located 22 km from the nearby Government hospital at Dharmasala. The village, which has a population of 5,000 and 200 households, has no basic amenities like a hospital and a proper school. They started collecting money from the villagers in 2015. In 2016, the villagers were ready with the budgeted amount of `3 lakh to build the hospital.
‘It was all our hard earned money. Most of us are farmers or migrant workers. We hardly manage to feed our children. But many villagers donated their hard earned money and labour for the hospital. Around 25000 villagers of the Batijoda and its nearby areas will get health facilities from this hospital,’ said Benudhar Mallick, a villager.
The new hospital building was inaugurated by local MlA Pranab Balabantray on Saturday in the presence of many locals and other officials. Addressing the meeting, the MlA praised the villagers for building a hospital from their own money. The MlA assured the villagers that the Health Department will extend all help to the hospital.