Maladies continue to haunt Thanlon, parbung villagers
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 15 2008: While his peers enjoyed in celebrating Children's Day death literally grazed a 16 year old boy after suspected bout of epilepsy struck minutes after he participated in the celebration at Thanlon sub-division of Churachandpur district yesterday.

Abraham, who studies in class VII at the Partnership Mission School, Senvon showed serious signs of epilepsy last evening and had to be rushed to RIMS Hospital tonight by a joint team of Army, mediapersons and representative of a local philanthropic organisation.

With the intervention of RIMS Director Dr L Fimate Abraham is being put on round the clock monitoring at the hospital.

said to be a relatively non-complicated ailment epilepsy could be detected/diagnosed through the EEG at the cost of only about Rs 500.

An Army medical officer providing emergency aid to Abraham

But absence of civil administration in Thanlon and virtually non-existent health care facility is being cited as the main factor that endangered Abraham's survival.

Medical practitioners of the 12 Madras Regiment unit stationed at Thanlon and Parbung sub-divisions expressed willingness to extent all possible assistance to the young boy with the only impediment being absence of equipment to precisely diagnose his suffering as administration of medicines without proper diagnosis is unethical.

Senvon which is under Parbung sub-division is very close to the Manipur-Mizoram border and is one of many villages where basic amenity is still a rare commodity.

PRO of PIB (Defence Wing) Colonel Rajesh Mishra, who graced the Children's Day celebration at parbung highlighted that after the deployment of Army since December 2007 at Parbung and Thanlon to sanitise the interior locations from the presence of underground elements a sense of security could be observed among the villagers.

Col Rajesh Mishra, himself posted at Parbung some 23 years back as a Captain, regretted that development in the near future is hard to visualise as the State Government seem hesitant to expeditiously initiate welfare schemes.

He also noted that even after intimation from the Army authorities to restore civil administration in the areas the only change is limited to construction of school building, primordial medical care centre, police station and even office of the Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) without actual presence of any official or requisite personnel to make these vital institutions functional.

Ironically report has been received of medical, police and civil administration personnel making their presence felt only when a VIP is scheduled to visit there only to vanish after return of VIPs.

The deployment of Rajput Rifle units at these erstwhile UG strongholds restored a sense of security among the populace but inspite of clearing the areas from UGs there is still no sign of civil administration, lamented Col Mishra who predicted that in case the Army units leave the area UG elements are certain to rear their heads.

Thanlon, which is about 250 kilometres from the capital city and 197 kms from Churachandpur district headquarters takes nearly two days from Churachandpur and necessitates spending Rs 300 on a one way trip that too atop loaded trucks.

The Madras Regiment units stationed at parbung and Thanlon get their ration, medicines and fuel requirements through sorties of military chopper atleast 4-6 times a week as accessing these military facilities via road would mean rotting of perishable goods among other inconveniences.

The supplies for the military personnel also reaches the locals particularly essential items such a medicines and kerosine.

At present there is tell-tale sign of the people being infected with viral hepatitis with possibility of enormous human casualty as was evident in the recent past when about 30 people lost their lives due to outbreak of seasonal diseases.