Kendrapara: Denial of the government-run Mahaprayan corpse carrier vehicle forced a person to carry his four-year-old son's body on a motorbike to perform the child's last rites.

Satya Ranjan had drowned to death after slipping into a pond on the backyard of his house. The victim had been rushed to district headquarters hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

The crew of government-run corpse carrier vehicle demanded Rs 600 to carry the body to Hatia village in Marshaghai police limits, about 10km from the headquarters.

The child's father, Debashis Mohapatra, said: "The corpse carrier demanded Rs 600 towards ferrying charges. As I was unwilling, they forcibly got us off from the vehicle. Later, I had to carry my son's body on a motor bike."

"They left us midway," he said.

Chief district medical officer Baishnab Charan Sahu said: "We do not have any information of corpse carrier vehicle being denied to the complainant. The matter is being inquired into."

The state government agencies seem to have forgotten to accord dignity to the dead. It's abject failure of service delivery mechanism while the chief minister is reeling out statistics on a daily basis of the improved service delivery mechanism in the state. The incident of this nature projects the state in poor light to the outer world, said human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo.

Odisha had earlier hogged the spotlight for wrong reason as a tribal man Daana Majhi was forced to shoulder the corpse of his spouse and trekked to cremate the body.