After baby lost due to lack of connectivity, hill area to get road

VELLORE: There seems to be no immediate relief to the parents of a one-and-a-halfyear-old girl child, Danushka, who was bitten by a snake and died due to lack of proper road to reach the nearest medical facility, the PHC, at Anaicut near Vellore. Hours after the news about Danushka’s death there was massive outrage on social media over the incident.

Though Vellore Collector P Kumaravel Pandian ordered immediate measures to provide a road to the hill villages, the absence of quick connectivity yet again exposed the parents to a similar trauma that cost the life of their daughter.

Once the post-mortem of the snakebite victim was completed at the Vellore Government Medical College Hospital, police handed over the body to the parents and an ambulance was arranged to move the body to Alleri hill village. But the ambulance was not able to proceed much due to the lack of road. As a result, the parents and relatives were forced to get down from the vehicle midway and carry their dead child in their arms for the remaining 7 km by foot to reach their village.

Collector Kumaravel Pandian, who visited Alleri on Monday, informed reporters that speedy efforts were being made to lay a road even if a pucca tar stretch was not possible immediately. We are laying roads under the Centre’s 100-day work scheme immediately with the help of the Forest Department.

Informing that both the Anaicut MLA and the district panchayat chairman had both requested the Rural Administration Minister for a proper road to the hill village, the Collector said, “the Minister instantly ordered the work to be taken up and hence we have prepared a Rs 5 crore project report for it.”

“Though the village has a VHN (village health nurse) who could have rendered first aid to the child immediately, the parents did not contact her although they had the VHN’s phone number.”

Elaborating, he said, “their immediate concern was to take the child to the Anaicut PHC and hence they completely forgot the availability of a VHN in their locality.” Asked if getting forest department clearance was holding up the road project, he said, “We have made arrangements to upload the necessary documents so that they meet the parameters of the forest department for the necessary clearance. The Vellore DFO has promised to help us in this regard.”