Angul: The Khushi scheme launched to provide good menstrual hygiene care to women and school going adolescent girls has failed to make them happy in Angul district.
Sanitary napkins worth lakhs of rupees were recently found lying undistributed at Angul district headquarters hospital (DHH) and were thus passed their expiry dates, making them unusable.
When the scheme was launched in the state in Angul district, it was started as a pilot project. The chief district medical officer (CDMO) was entrusted with the job to monitor it in Angul.
The scheme went on seamlessly for some days after its launching. But later, it seemed to have derailed. “Thousands of napkins having gone waste at the DHH so is a clear testimony to the fact that the Khushi scheme has failed in Angul district,” some local residents alleged.
These expired napkins were seen lying scattered in the courtyard of a building located just behind the Seva Bhawan building constructed on the premises of the DHH by district truck owners’ association.
None of the DHH officials have answers to questions like why these napkins were made to go waste and what was the quantity of Khushi napkins the DHH had in its stock.
On the condition of anonymity, a DHH official said that in the initial days the pace of distribution of these sanitary napkins among schools was a little bit slow, leading to such a situation. “Since these pads have passed the expired date, they have been thrown away,” he added.
Our repeated attempt to contact the CDMO Dr Amarendra Mohanty on his mobile phone (Mob No-9439981331) for his reaction in this regard proved futile as he did not receive the call. However, Collector Manoj Kumar Mohanty did take the matter seriously. “A probe to find out why such a huge quantity of napkins was destroyed and whose fault this is will be initiated soon and action would be taken against those found guilty,” he said.
PNN