Dhenkanal: The Mahaprayan scheme once failed again in Odisha. As a result, daughters had to carry their father’s dead body on a trolley to the hospital for postmortem at Nilakanthapur village in Bhuban block of Dhenkanal district.
The deceased, identified as Daitari Mallick, was missing from Monday night, following which his family members started looking out for him.
The body of 60-year-old Mallick was found on the banks of Brahmani River on Tuesday.
His family members tried to call an ambulance to carry the body to the hospital, but in vain. Left with no other option, Mallick’s daughters carried it on a trolley.
They also tried to avail a private ambulance but it too did not respond to the call.
Mallick’s daughters carried his body to the hospital where an autopsy was conducted and brought it back home for cremation.
Meanwhile, Chief District Medical Officer Dr Basudev Behera said the family did not wait till the ambulance arrived at the spot.
Recently, in Nabarangpur district, non-availability of a free hearse service forced parents of twin girls to hire an autorickshaw to carry the body of their child from the district headquarters hospital (DHH) to their village at Gadabaguda in Nandahandi block.
Dhana Santa and his wife Dhanamati had admitted their three-month-old twin baby girls, who were suffering from pneumonia, to the DHH for treatment.
One of the twins died, following which, they called for Mahaprayan van. However, it was out of service due to lack of maintenance. They had to wait for five hours for the van and finally, hired an auto to go back home with the body.
According to the hospital sources, the vehicle has been lying defunct for the last fortnight. Since the launch of the scheme, no fund has been given for the maintenance of the vehicle, the sources added.
In a similar incident, a poor widower had to carry his son’s body on a trolley rickshaw from hospital for the last rites in Sundargarh district on July 29.
The matter came to the light when a video clip of the same went viral.
According to reports, the woman, identified as Mira Rohidas, was denied ambulance service under the Mahaprayan scheme, following which, she was forced to carry her son Tikeswar Rohidas’ body on a trolley rickshaw from the DHH to Lohradhipa under Sundergarh municipal area.
