Gadchiroli, July 2 (District Correspondent) District Collector Avishyant Panda has instructed the officials to create widespread awareness among the citizens of rural areas so that they should immediately seek official medical treatment without relying on superstition and witchcraft.
He gave these instructions while speaking at the review meeting of the district-level committee on the implementation of the public awareness, publicity and dissemination program of the Anti-Witchcraft Act was held at the collectorate on Tuesday under his chairmanship.
Zilla Parishad CEO Suhas Gade and Additional SP Satyasai Karthik were present on the occasion.
Mr. Panda said, “many citizens still go to priests instead of doctors when they fall ill. These priests mislead the patients. This wastes valuable time for treatment and endangers the lives of the patients. Widespread awareness is therefore necessary to change this habit.” He instructed that the revenue, police and health departments should jointly launch a public awareness campaign and motivate the citizens to seek proper treatment.
He said that teachers should also actively participate in this and should convey proper information to parents and villagers through students. Asha workers, police patils, kotwals, gram sevaks and talathis should immediately report incidents related to witchcraft to senior officers or the police, he said.
Mr. Panda instructed that the system should pay special attention to such practices in Kurkheda, Aheri, Etapalli, Bhamragad and Korchi areas as the prevalence of such practices is high there. The growing problem of bogus doctors was also discussed at this time. The District Collector directed that strict action be taken against those who do not have any medical qualifications or are not registered as authorized doctors and directed that police and taluka-level committees should conduct joint crackdowns against such persons.
The meeting was attended by Assistant District Collector Ranjit Yadav, Naman Goyal, Kushal Jain, District Health Officer Dr. Pratap Shinde, District Surgeon Dr. Madhuri Kilnake, Assistant Commissioner of Social Welfare Dr. Sachin Madavi. All Sub-Divisional Police Officers, Sub-Divisional Revenue Officers, Tehsildars, Taluka Health Officers and concerned officers also attended the meeting through video conferencing.
