HT DIGITAL
GUWAHATI, JULY 11: The Katashbari Veterinary Hospital in Jogighopa, Assam, is a poignant reminder of administrative indifference, with the locals now calling it a “haunted house.” Originally intended to be an important healthcare center for animals, the state-run hospital has been lying idle and unused for the last 15 years, residents and local sources say.
No veterinary doctor has ever been posted to the hospital since it was set up. No staff, no medical facilities, and no maintenance have gone into the facility over the years, and today the building is in complete ruin. Thick vegetation has taken over the compound, and the building is collapsing—its walls shattered and sections of it collapsed, rendering it unsafe and inoperable.
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This ongoing inaction on the part of the Assam government’s Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Department has placed local livestock owners in a predicament. Without proximate veterinary facilities, they have to journey 15 to 20 kilometers merely to receive simple medical treatment for their animals. For many, this is both logistically and financially prohibitive.
“Government has totally overlooked us,” griped one irate resident. “For more than ten years, we’ve been requesting a viable temporary veterinary hospital. Our animals and we are suffering. One hears about development and rural extension, but nothing reaches us.” The locals are also frustrated amidst recent controversies, like the Gir cattle controversy in Assam, highlighting that even as arguments rage at the policy level, the ground situation is pathetic.
