Road outside Rampur district hospital

RAMPUR: There is no surprise, let alone shock, among residents of Rampur which ended at the bottom of the Ease of Living Index 2018 released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Monday. "In fact, it comes as relief to many of us here as we stand vindicated. We always said that it cannot get worse anywhere in India than here," said 25-year-old Lakshya Saxena, a sales executive.

The city with a population of 3.25 lakh has no facility of solid waste management and 165 metric tonnes of garbage collected here every day is dumped at a ground in Ghatampur village. Heaps of garbage and overflowing sewer lines are everywhere, including the bus stand and railway station, and even outside the district hospital.

Syed Amir Mian, an advocate, said, "The residents were promised that Rampur municipality will generate electricity from waste. And all we have is waste everywhere and no electricity."

Only 13 doctors for over 4,000 patients in district hospital

Chief sanitation and food inspector TPS Verma blames it on the shortage of staff.

“According to a government order of 1991, there should be 28 sweepers for a population of 10,000. However, of the total 355 sanctioned posts of permanent sweepers, we have only 199, besides 170 contractual sweepers against 534 needed. As we lack proper sanitation staff, we have outsourced cleaning of 21 of total 43 wards,” he said.

Healthcare here needs life support. The district hospital which gets over 4,000 patients at its OPD every day has 13 doctors against 27 sanctioned posts. It has no physician or specialists like cardiologist, neurologist, skin specialist and ENT. Even at women’s ward of the hospital, two patients often share the same bed.

CMS Dr BM Nagar said, “As the hospital lacks specialists, we at times have no option but to refer patients to medical colleges in Meerut and Aligarh.” The city has no MRI machine in any of its government or private hospitals. Education is in dire straits too. When TOI team visited Kasturba residential school in Loha, it found a student sweeping classrooms. Head teacher Yogita Rathore said, “If sweepers are absent, students clean classrooms.”

Rampur doesn’t have a single city bus. Tempos and autos, less than 50 each, and 350 e-rickshaws make up for the public transport. Shahnaz Begum, a housewife and resident of Civil Lines, said, “If our personal vehicle is not available, it becomes difficult for us to commute.” Assistant regional transport officer Arun Kumar said, “It has been proposed to introduce CNG-operated tempos in the city.” But that may take some time.

Residents have to bear with five to six hours of power cuts every day. Besides, power theft is rampant. Bills worth more than Rs 35 crore have not been paid. Executive engineer Sachin Kumar Singh said, “Underground cables are being laid to stop power pilfering. We have received over 10 cases in the last six months in which locals tried to stop underground cabling work. The power department along with police force has been conducting raids since April 14 and we have lodged 478 FIRs and recovered Rs 15.57 lakh in penalties.”

Not everybody is pessimistic though. District magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh said, “We will improve our condition to occupy slot among 50 cities.” Chief development officer SK Singh refused to comment.

