Seeking hospital at Bhagwanpur, villagers hold foot march in Rewari

Stepping up their ongoing campaign, residents of Ramgarh-Bhagwanpur and nearby villages on Sunday took out a foot march from the dharna site at Bhagwanpur village to mini secretariat in Rewari city to mount pressure on the state government to accept their demand.

They are demanding the setting up of a 200-bed hospital project on the panchayat land of Bhagwanpur village located near National Highway-71. For that, they have also been staging an indefinite dharna at the village for the past over three weeks.

The location for the project is yet to be decided by the state authorities. The protesters fear that the project may be executed in another village as they claim “a proposal for the required land was recently sought from another village”.

Earlier, the protesters gathered at the dharna spot in Bhagwanpur village and started a foot march that was flagged off by elderly villagers Hiralal and Lal Singh. The march passed through Prajapati Chowk and Abhay Singh Chowk before culminating at the Secretariat, where Anil Kumar, who led the protest, read out the memorandum and submitted it to the district authorities on behalf of the villagers.

“The foot march covered nearly 9 km and a considerable gathering of people in the protest is a clear indication that everyone wants the hospital project to be set up at Bhagwanpur village,” said Anil, son of Bhagwanpur village sarpanch Krishna Devi.

He claimed that the campaign would continue until the hospital project is set up in Bhagwanpur village, which was the most suitable site for this project.

“We will wait 15 days for a positive government response. If there is none, we will convene a meeting to decide the further course of action to escalate the movement to the next level. We will not fear, not bow and get the hospital set up in our village…this is our slogan,” Anil added.

Protest leader Rajendra Singh said the movement had now transformed into a ‘jan andolan’. “Given the overwhelming public sentiment and support, the state government must respect the will of the people and formally announce the hospital at Bhagwanpur,” he urged.