Baripada: Family members carrying the body of a deceased on a trolley at Rasagovindpur in Mayurbhanj district has gone viral. It has exposed the failure to properly implement the Odisha government’s ‘Mahaprayan Scheme’.
Sources said, Dukhi Marandi (46) of Gobara village under Rasagovindpur block was admitted to the local community health centre after he fell ill. He had breathed his last Tuesday 8.00pm. The deceased’s wife and some family members carried the body on a trolley in full public view to their house Wednesday morning.
Commuters and local people shot videos of the incident on their mobile phones and later those went viral. They did not get a proper vehicle to carry the deceased to his residence.
Gajendra Marandi, a relative of the deceased said the hospital did not provide them with any vehicle to carry the body back home. “With no other option left, we hired a trolley for Rs 800, wrapped up the body and pulled the trolley to the village, five kilometres from the hospital.
When contacted, the medical officer in-charge of the health centre Dr Debashis Pattanayak said the deceased’s wife had been told that a vehicle would be arranged Wednesday morning to send her husband’s body to the village. “But they did not wait for it and took the body without informing anyone. If it is necessary we will inform the police about the incident, Pattanayak said.
Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had launched the ‘Mahaprayan Scheme’ August 25, 2016. The scheme was launched a day after a shocking video went viral. It was of Dana Majhi carrying his wife’s body on his shoulders from the hospital to his house in Kalahandi district.
Under the ‘Mahaprayan Scheme’, the Red Cross will provide free transport facilities to the poor to take their patients recovered from the disease or bodies of their relatives from the hospital to their villages.
PNN