Nagaon, April 27: Snakes and jackals currently overrun a building meant to deal with the healthcare needs of the villagers of Changchaki in central Assam's Nagaon district.

Having waited nearly 25 years to see the hospital function, the villagers today asked Dispur to take a final decision on the "abandoned" institute.

The state government built the hospital in 1985 and renovated it in 1996. However, it was never inaugurated. The abandoned hospital building is now covered in vegetation and inhabited by animals, including reptiles.

Changchaki, under Kampur police station of Nagaon district, is 165km from Guwahati. The flood-hit area, along the bank of the Kopili river, falls under Raha Assembly constituency.

The villagers have written to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, asking the government to either rebuild the hospital or demolish it completely and expand the existing grazing ground for animals.

The hospital building, with quarters inside its boundary, has been abandoned long ago.

"We cannot even use the neighbouring grazing reserve for cattle out of the fear of snakes. Jackals and cats also prowl within the decayed building," said Biman Bordoloi, a grocery store owner.

Dispur had promised to provide three doctors, five nurses and eight staff members for the hospital.

The then local AGP legislator, Umesh Das, had assured the villagers that the hospital would be upgraded to a 30-bed institution with facilities like institutional delivery, infant-care unit and a full-fledged operation theatre.

"On January 1, 1989, the revenue department allotted two hectares of land according to the government's instructions (advanced possession). Dispur sanctioned Rs 25 lakh for civil work and the building and infrastructure development followed. All civil work was completed in a year and we had begun to wait for the inauguration," said villager Ratul Bora.

After repeated appeals, Dispur sanctioned Rs 10 lakh for the hospital's renovation in 1996.

"Twenty-one years have gone by since the renovation of the hospital. Politicians assured us that the hospital would be inaugurated in March 1997. We have been waiting for the last 20 years for a minister to arrive and inaugurate it," said Junmoni Deka, a local schoolteacher.

Kampur circle officer Rashmi Rekha Gogoi said the land was allotted by the administration to the health department for 15 years only.

"According to office records, the allotted land will revert to the government if the department concerned did not establish the hospital within the scheduled 15 years," she said.

The joint director of the Nagaon health service department, Atul Chandra Pator, said Dispur had recently ordered an inquiry into the plight of the hospital.

"In the last three years, two such inquiries had been ordered. We had submitted our reports in time," Pator said.

Nagaon deputy commissioner Shamsher Singh said the district administration would soon place the issue before the state government for special consideration in the greater interest of the local people. "The Changchaki hospital issue will be presented before the health minister soon," Singh said.

"The nurse in the neighbouring health sub-centre is our only help when we are in trouble. The community health centre in Kampur is 12km from here and this is the next option in an emergency," said Rudra Hazarika, a primary schoolteacher.