Sept. 19: Daana Majhi's plight saw a re-run at Jajpur headquarters hospital, situated 100km from Bhubaneswar, on Saturday.
A tribal woman Pana Sirka, who was undergoing treatment for fever and stomach pain, died at the hospital at 4pm on Saturday.
Her son Guma wanted to ferry the body of his mother to their village Ankula, which is 2km from the health care centre. When Guma approached the hospital authorities to hire the hearse, they allegedly said that it was "busy" and would not be available to ferry Pana's body home.
Apparently it was no other reason but Vishwakarma Puja that had kept the vehicle out of service. The vehicle, which also doubles up as a hearse, was being worshipped as part of Vishwakarma Puja.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Guma said: "When I approached the hospital employees for a hearse to take her body to Ankula for her last rites, they said that the vehicle could not be provided as it was being worshipped on the occasion of Vishwakarma Puja. Helpless, we approached the driver of a private car. But, the driver demanded Rs 8,000 for the 2km ride to Ankula. Finally, we had to carry the body on a trolley rickshaw."
An official at the Jajpur hospital, who did not want to be named, said that not only the lone hearse, but two ambulances were also rendered unavailable for public service on Saturday as all the vehicles were being offered puja.
Chief district medical officer Phanindra Panigrahi, however, said: "I was not in Jajpur when the alleged incident took place. I had gone to Nagada, which is about 70km away, to oversee rural development works as principal secretary, rural development department, Madhusudan Padhi, had gone from Bhubaneswar to take stock of the malnutrition problems there. However, I will look into the matter."
The incident has the potential to embarrass the state government as it comes within a month of Daana Majhi being forced to carry his wife's body on his shoulder for about 16km at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi as the administration had reportedly refused to provide him with an ambulance on August 24.
Daana's plight made headlines and had even moved Prime Minister of Bahrain Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, who donated Rs 8.87 lakh to him.
A day after the news of Daana carrying his wife's body had gone viral, chief minister Naveen Patnaik swung into damage control mode and flagged off the Mahaprayan hearse scheme to carry bodies from all the district headquarters hospitals free of charge. As part of the scheme, the state government is supposed to deploy a hearse at every district headquarters hospitals in the state. The plight of Pana's family members shows that the benefits of the scheme were yet to reach Jajpur.
