Prolonged shutdown of about 26 community clinics in Chandina Upazila of Comilla for lack of government co-operation has been depriving thousands of people of treatment facilities.
Despite the good intentions of the government and donors, the clinics came to no use for the villagers. The people of Ziruaish of Maizkhar Union and Dolai of Nababpur Union said that due to lack of maintenance for the last three to four years, doors and windows of the clinics have become dilapidated. The verandahs of many of the clinics are presently used as shelters for cows and goats.
Prolonged shutdown of about 26 community clinics in Chandina Upazila of Comilla for lack of government co-operation has been depriving thousands of people of treatment facilities. Originally the government with the assistance of some well-off people who donated lands and equipment took some initiatives for the uplift of the healthcare centres.
Source: The Bangladesh Today, June 13, 2004
Editor's Note: This brings up the question of the relative success of projects donated by government, wealthy people, or foreign sources such as WB, IMF or USAID as compared to projects initiated by the people themselves, which are set up as business cooperatives, where every villager has a vested interested in the project's success. As Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar has stated:
"For their success, cooperative enterprises depend on morality, strong administration and the wholehearted acceptance of the cooperative system by the people. Wherever these three factors are evident in whatever measure, cooperatives will achieve proportionate success. To encourage people to form cooperatives, successful cooperative models should be established and people should be educated about the benefits of the cooperative system.
