The team members during their three-day stay in the area had observed that several posts for doctors and other nursing staff in hospitals were vacant.

They had also noted that food items were illegally stocked by the fair price stores.

The NHRC team will submit its report to both the state and the Central governments.

The team, comprising B C Patel, Tapaswini Mohanti, R K Bhargav and YSR Murty had arrived at Ahwa on Tuesday to check the basic facilities of health, food, education, and prison, among others received by the tribal people of the area.

During their stay, the team members visited government offices, hospitals, fair price shops and schools in the area.

They noted that the vacancies for the posts of doctors and hospital staff at the Ahwa Civil Hospital were not filled and the sanitation conditions in the hospital were not good.

They also observed that doctors abstained themselves from performing their OPD duties at the area's primary healthcare centres and community healthcare centres.

Some of the owners of the fair price shops were found to have stocked the food material meant for distribution among the tribals.

The team also interacted with the people living in the villages of the tribal belt and noted down their problems.

The research officer of the team, Tapaswini Mohanti, said, “The tribal people are not aware of several government schemes and their education needs to be started at the grassroots level.”

Mohanti added: “Gram Mitras and anganwadi workers should also be educated further, as they don’t know what their duties are. People in the tribal belt have to travel around 35 to 40 km to reach the primary healthcare centre,

which should not be beyond four kilometres.”