In a grim example of government neglect, villagers from Bakoda Gram Panchayat in Talladesh, Uttarakhand, were compelled to transport a critically ill patient by tying him to a pole and carrying him for 15 kilometers on foot due to the absence of a road or nearby healthcare facilities. It took ten young men over four hours to get the patient to the hospital. While the rest of the state celebrated Diwali, these villagers faced the harsh reality of inadequate rural infrastructure.
The ordeal began on Thursday evening when 50-year-old Tej Singh was struck by severe abdominal pain, requiring urgent medical intervention. Without road access or local health facilities, his family turned to neighbors for help. Ten villagers fashioned a makeshift stretcher from a pole, undertaking a dangerous journey over rocky terrain and steep paths to the nearest main road, where they could finally access an ambulance to reach the district hospital. Doctors there diagnosed him with a perforated intestine, an urgent condition requiring surgery.
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Bakoda’s Gram Panchayat head, Mahendra Rawat, expressed frustration, stating, “The government has consistently failed us. The lack of basic infrastructure drives people to leave our village, and no one hears our suffering.”
Similarly, Dinesh Bohra, a Block Development Committee member for Manch, revealed that several petitions have been sent to the Chief Minister and relevant departments demanding road construction. “If it weren’t for the holiday season when people are back home, we wouldn’t have managed this rescue. It’s painful to see lives lost to such inaction,” he said.
This incident starkly reveals the deficiencies in essential services in rural Uttarakhand. Villagers like those in Bakoda are left questioning whether development is still just an empty promise.
