C-NES in the news: IAF copters rescue 12 stranded on boat clinic

Helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) today rescued all the 12 persons on board the boat clinic stranded in the Dibang river here.

The Dibang is one of the main channels of the Brahmaputra in eastern Assam. The motorboat had been immobilised after it hit the river’s bottom that had swelled up due to heavy siltation.

The boat clinic belongs to the Centre for North-East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES).

Ashok Rao, a C-NES programme coordinator, said that the 12 persons, including two doctors, nurses and boat crew, had been stuck in the gushing water near an isle under Amarpur revenue circle in the flood-ravaged Tinsukia district of Assam since June 21.

The medical team had gone there to provide treatment to dwellers of Amarpur isle.

The rescued persons were brought to the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tinsukia. The boat clinic was also brought to safety today.

While there were foodstuffs on the boat, it had run out of its stock of drinking water. The villagers were providing drinking water to our stranded staff, a C-NES official in Tinsukia said.

It is one of the 15 boat clinics operated by the C-NES in Assam under financial assistance from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

These boat clinics are an innovative means to reach out to lakhs of residents in numerous inaccessible river isles in the Brahmaputra.

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120628/nation.htm#8