There are no road communications to as many as 7,332 villages in the State, for which people of these villages are unable to get ambulance services in time or not at all. However, the State Government is providing Rs 1,000 as transportation cost to each pregnant woman to come to a hospital for delivery.
This was revealed from the information furnished by Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena in the State Assembly in response to a question BJP MlA Dilip Ray on Thursday.
The Minister informed that the 7,332 villages have been identified as unreachable villages under the scheme, “Sampurna”. The Government is providing Rs 1,000 as transportation assistance to each pregnant woman of these villages. The Government is mulling to “bike ambulance’ Service in these areas, he further informed.
Out of the above identified villages, while the highest number of 998 villages is in Koraput district, the lowest number of four villages is in Jharsuguda district. Similarly, there are 914 unreachable villages in Kandhamal, 817 in Rayagada, 535 in Kalahandi, 583 in Gajapati, 561 in Malkangiri and 483 in Ganjam district.
While Nayagarh, Nabarangpur and Mayurbhanj districts have more than 300 unapproachable villages, Sundargarh has 210 such villages. Nuapada, Keonjhar, Boudh and Baleswar each have more than a 100 inaccessible villages. The rest districts have less than a hundred unapproachable villages.