Malkangiri: In a humanitarian move to help out the people of Cut Off Area, Border Security Force (BSF) has launched ‘Boat Ambulance Service’ in the Balimela reservoir for the people of Swabhimaan Anchal, in the district of Malkangiri on occasion of the 73rd Republic Day.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, DIG, BSF has inaugurated the ‘Boat Ambulance Service’ by the side of Gurupriya Bridge in the Swabhiman Anchal. This will facilitate in providing emergency medical services to around 10,000 people of the area.
Recently, BSF DG Pankaj Kumar Singh, who visited the area, had realized that the people of the Swabhiman Anchal should be provided with medical facilities as patients face lot of difficulties to cross the reservoir to visit hospital in Chitrakonda.
Mr. Singh said the BSF has will meet the emergency health requirement of the people with the help of the district administration. The BSF also appealed to the people of the area to take benefit of the facility.
The ‘Boat Ambulance Service’ will be available between the both ends of Balimela Reservoir. More than 10,000 residents of over 35 villages near the reservoir in the Cut-Off area will be benefited.
Though the State Government has opened Guripriya bridge, most of the people are unable to get ambulance service due to lack of roads to come to the main land. They used to carry ailing persons to hospitals on slings or bamboo stretchers through forest areas.
Swabhiman Anchal, popularly known as Cut Off Area, was created when the Balimela Reservoir was erected in 1977 which isolated 151 villages from the mainland. After the decades, the turning point came in 2018 when Gurupriya Bridge was built under heavy protection of BSF troops, making feasible for the security personnel and State Administration to venture into Maoist bastion with a vision of development in the region.
The BSF officials said that Boat Ambulance Service will be available seven days a week. Contact number for the service will be displayed on the boat ambulance while contact numbers of BSF officers will be circulated among the villagers.
The boat is equipped with medical oxygen cylinders, drip system, emergency medicines, a physician, paramedical staff and stretchers.
The BSF officers will arrange ambulance to shift the patients to the nearby hospital once they cross the Balimela Reservoir, DIG Mr.Singh said.
BSF Forces are deployed in Odisha since 2010 and assisting anti-Maoist operations and ensuing implementation of the developmental works in Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected areas.