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Port Blair, Aug 3: The Andaman Congress today said the relay hunger strike at Rangat village of Middle Andaman region would continue until better health facilities were provided.

''The health facilities in Middle Andaman region are pathetic. We need a better healthcare system for the remote villages and until our demands are fulfilled, we shall continue our relay hunger strike,'' Chief Spokesperson of Andaman and Nicobar Territorial Congress Committee (ANTCC) K Ganeshan told the sources here.

The Congress workers, participating in the relay hunger strike, demanded immediate posting of doctors and specialists at the civil hospital of Rangat, besides sufficient staff, attendants and sweepers, ECG technician, installation of X-Ray machine, replenishment of medicines stock and veterinary staff at the veterinary hospital of Rangat.

Rangat villagers had been demanding these basic facilities since many years. ''We don't have enough doctors, therefore, sometimes nurses have to examine patients and issue medicines,'' Debobrata Dey, a Rangat villager, said.

Meanwhile, the president of ANTCC wrote a letter to Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bhopinder Singh, seeking his intervention to solve the health problems of Middle Andaman region.

''Some remote islands, including Long Island, which fall under Rangat Tehsil, do not have a permanent doctor, while staff nurses are posted in the islands on two-day rotational duty,'' the president said.

A few weeks ago, the BJP workers had also organised a dharna in Rangat to press similar demands.

UNI