Nine-year-old Purna Bista was bitten by a snake while he was playing in a field near his house Sunday evening, the first day of the nationwide Maoist shutdown. [break]
“Had the strike not been in place, I could have taken him to a hospital on time,” said 35-year-old Chandra Bista, the boy´s desolate mother.
The incident has left the whole village in mourning.
Chandra, who hasn´t eaten anything since the tragedy, is awaiting the arrival of her husband Netra Bista who works in Pune, India. “He had left entrusting upon me the responsibility of looking after our children,” said Chandra. “Why didn´t the snake bite me? What will I tell to my husband?”
Netra, who has been informed about the tragedy by phone, had not been able to reach home until Wednesday.
Villagers are trying to console Chandra. The deceased boy´s grandfather Birendra Bista said, “There are no ambulances in this village. The phone was also not working that evening due to power outage. And there were no vehicle operating due to the strike.”
He complained that commoners have been forced to die owing to the Maoist strike.
Relatives who wanted to reach here after hearing about the second grader´s death have not been able to reach Bardiya owing to the strike and are stranded on the way, relatives said.
“We shifted to this place from Accham hoping that we could have access to medical help in case a family member took ill,” said Chandra.
The Bista family lives in Neulapur-3 that falls along the East-West Highway. “But my own son died of lack of medical help,” she said.
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