Guwahati: Data from the Union ministry of health and family welfare has revealed that the health sub-centres are running without proper infrastructure in rural areas of the Northeast.

The rural health statistics of the ministry looked at some parameters to evaluate the condition of the sub-centres which found that as on March last year as many as 87.4 per cent sub-centres in Manipur are running without regular water supply and 61.3 per cent run without electricity. It found that the highest percentage of sub-centres run without all-weather motorable approach is in Arunachal Pradesh (37.8 per cent).

The health sub-centres, which are the most peripheral and first contact point between the primary health care system and communities, play an important role in providing health care in rural areas. The sub-centres of Assam have cut a sorry figure with 49.7 per cent of them running without regular water supply, 47.2 per cent without electricity supply and nine per cent without all weather motorable approach.

The data shows that of the 1,014 primary health centres in Assam 80 (7.9 per cent) are running without electric supply, 122 (12 per cent) without regular water supply and 53 (5.2 per cent) without all-weather motorable roads. Only 18.8 per cent of them have telephones and 62.5 per cent have computers.

The data shows that the number of sub-centres in Assam have come down to 4,621 in 2017 from 5,109 in 2005.

During the period, the number of primary health centres has increased from 610 to 1,014 and community health centres from 100 to 158. The increase of the primary health centres has been described by the ministry as "significant".

The Northeast is part of the 18 states chosen for "special focus" by the National Rural Health Mission because of their "weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure". The ministry says 56.3 per cent primary health centres in Assam function on 24x7 basis, 75.5 per cent have labour rooms, 4.6 per cent have operation theatres and 32.7 per cent have four beds.