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COW DUNG REMEDY!
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEP20030726125203&Page=P&Title=States&rLink=0
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEP20030726125203&Page=P&Title=States&rLink=0
ANGARA: The students of Hesalagarha Rajkiya Vidyalaya, a government-run school located in Angara block of Jharkhand's Ranchi district, are yet to get over the bolt from the blue that rocked this school on Friday afternoon.
More than 399 students were in the school when lightning struck. ``Afterwards I found 15 students lying unconscious inside the hall. I didn't know what to do. I ran out of school and informed the people,'' recalled Principal Sadarnath Mahato.
Though the police station and the primary health centre is located less than four km from this school, it took an hour-and-half for doctors to arrive. By the time doctors led by Devendra Kumar reached, villagers had already provided them ``first-aid''. ``We took these boys out and covered their bodies with cow dung,'' said Ashok Bhokta, a resident.
None of these doctors had any medicine. ``Cow dung is the time-tested and traditional cure for lightning-struck people. Had they not been covered with dung, the scene would have been different,'' said Kumar. This shows the state of health services in the state where more than Rs 15 lakh is spent on a primary health centre annually.
In the absence of medicines, the cow dung worked, said Bhokta. Within a few hours, 13 of these boys gained consciousness and were taken home by parents. Kumar and his team followed them and went from door to door. ``Till midnight, doctors were checking if their heart beat was normal,'' laughed Somra Kacchap.
As two students — Ashamani Tirkey and Pradeep Mahato — didn't gain consciousness despite the cow dung `treatment', their parents admitted them to private clinics. ``Government doctors don't care, they treat you like dirt and prescribe 10 medicines for a simple fever. After we learnt they got a cut on each medicine they prescribed, we stopped going to the government hospital,'' said Radhe Mahato, a relative of Pradeep who was undergoing treatment at Mahadevi Birla Hospital, Mahilong in the adjoining Tatisilwai block.
The villagers are particularly angry with police which did not visit the site. Said a villager: ``They come to inquire about Naxals and launch raid. But despite knowing about the incident, police didn't care to visit us. After the teachers of the school submitted an application informing him about the incident, the Angara Block Development Officer Rajiv Ranjan provided Rs 500 to Kumar as aid and asked him to visit the site.
Ranjan was not available for comment. But a clerk at the block office said: ``The BDO had given the money from his pocket.'' Meanwhile, Ranchi District JD-U president Banmali Mahato has demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation for the treatment of the affected students. Nobody in the government has reacted to the demand so far.