BIRMAHARAJPUR (Sonepur): When Birmaharajpur was declared a sub-division of the erstwhile Balangir district in 1987, it had cheered up the inhabitants. However, more than two decades later, nothing much has changed in the sub-division. Meantime, a separate Sonepur district was carved out in 1993.Comprising blocks of Birmaharajpur and Ulunda, the residents had hoped that upgradation into sub-division would trigger development. Two decades down the line, the sub-division status remains a misnomer as people are deprived of basic amenities including health care, drinking water and road connectivity.The area, in fact, has a community health centre when it should be having a full-fledged sub-divisional hospital. To worsen the situation, of the sanctioned eight doctor posts, including four specialists, only two doctors are serving and that too neither of them is a specialist. Even though the hospital has sanction for specialists in Gynaecology, Medicine, Paediatrics and Surgery, it is two Assistant Surgeons who treat the patients. The situation of diagnostic tests is no better with the posts of technician lying vacant. The patients have to get diagnostic tests, including X-Ray and simple malarial test, done outside, before they are prescribed medicines. Chief District Medical Officer T K Panda said a proposal to upgrade the CHC into a sub-divisional hospital had been pending with the State Government. Expressing his helplessness at posting specialists in the hospital, he said efforts would be made to post another assistant surgeon. Meanwhile, the denizens have moved Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik through their legislator and former minister Padmanabh Behera to upgrade the CHC into a sub-divisional hospital.
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