LARKANA: During a surprise visit to government health and educational institutions in several villages of Naudero, Ratodero`s Civil Judge Mohammed Ali Ruk found three dispensaries non-functional and occupied by some people while one middle school was closed for 15 years.

In pursuance of a directive issued by Larkana District and Sessions Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kalhoro, he visited on Tuesday the villages of Shimbh Jeho, Moria Faqir and Taggar on the outskirts of Naudero town where he found government dispensaries built in 2007 non-functional.

These health facilities were of no use to the villagers as the health department failed to post doctors and paramedics to run them, sources said.

On visiting the dispensaryin thevillage ofShinbh Jeho, it was learnt that a locallandlord had allegedly locked it from outside and kept agriculture implements, tractor and grains inside it. On inquiry, the landlord told the judge that the plot for the facility had been donated by him.

When, despite efforts, nodoctor was posted, he locked it, he said.

After getting the facility vacated, the judge ordered the SHO concerned to ensure that no one should occupy the dispensary.

On visiting a dispensary in the village of Taggar, the judge noted that it was not only closed but was allegedly used by labourers for their work. They escaped after witnessing the judge and police, the sources said.

Another dispensary which the judge visited in the village of Moria Faqir was in use of gamblers.

The villagers requested the judge to visit a nearby government girls middle school in the village of Bhonbhatpur (the birthplace of renowned scholar Pir Hussamuddin Rashdi and bureaucrat-turned politician Pir Ali Mohammed Rashdi), which was lying closed for 15 years.

The villagers told the judge that officially staff was shown posted in this school, but the ground reality was that the school was not operational for a single day.

The judge discovered that heaps of straw were dumped inside the school while there were cobwebs on furniture. A man sitting inside the closed school wasasked to immediately remove the material as education officials would come to make the school functional soon.The government dispensary located in the same village was working with only one dispenser and ward servant, who in routineexamine 20 to 25 patients daily. Villagers called for posting a doctor there as presently patients have to travel eight kilometres toget treatment from Naudero hospital.

The judge will send his raid report to the district and sessions judge of Larkana.