Medical NGO asked to withdraw from Bastar

Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, Aug 9 (UNI) Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical and humanitarian aid organization, has been barred from functioning in the naxalite infested tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

Dantewada District Collector K R Pisda told UNI that MSF, which is also known as Doctors without borders, was granted permission to provide medical help in the relief camps where nearly 50,000 people had taken shelter due to the Maoist violence in the region.

''We have now withdrawn permission granted to them. Instead of working in the relief camps, its volunteers also used to visit the remote villages without permission from the authorities concerned'', Mr Pisda said.

''The region is naxalite infested and such visits could prove risky to MSF volunteers'', he said, adding MSG did not provide the report on the progress of the work undertaken by them in the region.

According to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) website, the organisation started a medical program in Chhattisgarh ''where civilians suffer from a brutal war between Maoist movement and the state-supported Salwa Judum''.

''As a result of this conflict more than 50,000 people are displaced and living in makeshift camps or hiding in the forest areas. MSF-volunteers are providing medical treatment to villagers, many of them children, who have been displaced by the conflict''.

''As a result of the conflict, people have lost their means of livelihood and as a result malnutrition has become a major problem. MSF, which operates from two bases in Sukma and Dantewada, also supports a feeding center in one of the main camps in Dornapal.

Meanwhile, sources said there were allegations from anti naxal movement 'Salwa Judum' activists that MSF also provides medical treatment to injured Naxalites in the remote areas of Dantewada.

Maoist rebels had stepped up violence in tribal Bastar region during the last two years, particularly after the local population launched 'Salwa Judum', which in Gondi dialect means peace mission, to drive out the naxalites from the region. However, the Maoists felt that the movement was backed by security forces and the government.

The rebels began retaliatory attacks against the villagers, who participated in the Salwa Judum movement, forcing more than 50,000 people from about 900 villages to desert their native place and take shelter in 17 relief camps setup by the state government.

Though the district administration has made arrangements to provide medical facilities in these relief camps, it turned out to be insufficient due to shortage of doctors and para-medical staff not only in the relief camps but also in the entire naxalite infested south Bastar region.

Due to non-availability of qualified MBBS doctors to work in the area, the administration has sought the services of few ayurvedic doctors who visit these relief camps whenever required.

UNI