Nungbi villagers lack healthcare facilities
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 31, 2011: A government Primary Health Sub-Centre (PHSC) at Nungbi village in Ukhrul district has been functioning with only a nurse since it was opened 29 years back in 1982. The village located 45 km from Ukhrul district HQ and 125 km away from Imphal is among the villages of the district inhabited by Tangkhuls only and has around 418 homesteads and a population of over 2600 heads.

The village is famous for producing pottery made from iron-rich soil.

The products are popularly known as Nungbi Chaphu and is not produced in any other part of the state.

Despite various healthcare schemes like National Rural Health Mission which has been implemented in the state, the village is still among those places where such schemes have not reached to benefit the people.

The villagers have not got any sort of benefits from the government sponsored welfare and development schemes, 68 year old Phasing Simray said in an interaction with Hueiyen Lanpao.

He recalled that the PHSC in the village was inaugurated in 1982 and the villagers then had great hopes of getting medical treatment facilities, the only service provided by the PHSC was the immunization programme which comes once in a year.

Except for a nurse, no other staff has been posted in the centre from the very day of its opening till today, he added.

Villagers have to go to the district hospital at Ukhrul or to Imphal in times of serious illnesses, and deaths arising from such serious illnesses before reaching a proper hospital is nothing new to the villagers, he lamented.

Considering the sufferings the villagers have been made to endure, they have requested the authorities of the state government to upgrade the PHSC into a PHC (Primary Health Centre) and to post doctors and other required staff.

Such a step will also benefit the neighbouring villagers of Nungbi Khunou, Kasom K Phungrei, Kalhang, Kuirei, Awang Kasom, Marem, Nuireisimphu, Nunghar, etc.

Their pleas have so far been unattended to, and no action has been taken up to relieve the sufferings of the villagers, he added.

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