BADIN: Residents of more than 50 villages situated along Badin’s coastal belt on Tuesday resisted administration of antipolio drive for a second time, forcing the vaccination teams and the assistant commissioner concernedtoleavethe area.
They said they had boycottedthe previousround over failure of the provincial government and district administration to get the long-delayed Sirani-Kadhan road rebuilding scheme executed.
They recalled that they were made to end the boycott after assurances that the road would be rebuilt soon. However, they regretted that the promise was not fulfilled as yet. As such, they added, they were compelled to boycottthefreshround of the campaign.
The villagers refused to let vaccinators’ teams administer drops to their children in Sirani, Behadmi, Shaheed Dodo Soomro, Luwari Sharif and many adjoining vil-lages.
The Badin assistant commissioner held negotiations with them but failed to convince them and left the area without getting the drops administered to children.
The protesting villagers subsequently gathered at the Sirani Press Club, where they held a demonstration and addressed a press conference.
Representing them, Haji Qadir Bakhsh Gherano, Atta Mohammad Chang, Haji Asghar Gherano, Mashooq Ali Mallah and others alleged that coastal communities had been facing severe difficulties for nearly two years because of the deteriorating condition of the Sirani-Kadhan road.
They said the road had become so badly damaged that patients, agricultural produce and schoolchildren could not be transported safely and conveniently, adding that several bridges and culverts along the route had also collapsed.
According to them, Rescue 1122 ambulances were unable to enter the area because of the dam-aged road, while collapsed bridges over irrigation channels had further isolated severalvillages.
The protesters also claimed that pregnant women sometimes faced serious difficulties in reaching hospitals and, in some cases, were forced to give birth before reaching a medical facility.
They urged the provincial government and district administration to take immediate notice of the situation and begin reconstruction of the Sirani-Kadhan road.
They alleged thatelected representatives of the area and the district administration had repeatedly assured them that the road would be reconstructed, but no practical work had been started yet.
‘The people of more than 50 villages have, therefore, decided to boycott the current polio campaign until the government addresses our basic problem,’ they said.
The villagers said they would continue their protest and approach the courts if the authorities failed to resolve the issue.