Parents lug bodies of 2 dead sons for 15 kms; NHRC slaps notices on Maha govt

Mumbai : The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has slapped a notice on the Maharashtra Government on the shocking issue of a couple forced to carry their two dead sons for 15 kms due to lack of an ambulance in Gadchiroli-Amravati districts recently, an official said on Monday.

The NHRC notices to the state Health Department Principal Secretary and the Collectors of Amravati-Gadchiroli, highlighting the unavailability of basic health care facilities in remote areas, came in a petition filed by human rights activist, Advocate Radhakanta Tripathy in the Supreme Court.

The sad and shocking matter was raised by Congress’ Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar and highlighted first by IANS (September 5) after the distraught couple carried the bodies of their sons, aged six and three as they trudged on foot in the rain-soaked slushy forests for 15 kms from the health centre in Jimlagatta to the Pattigaon village in Gadchiroli.

The Jimlagatta health centre had declared the kids, purportedly suffering from fever, ‘dead’ and handed over the bodies to the parents.

However, since there was no ambulance available even after they waited for several hours, the heartbroken parents had to walk for 15 kms to Pattigaon clutching their dead children, to conduct their last rites.

Advocate Tripathy cited another instance of a pregnant tribal woman, Kavita A. Sakol of Dahendrai village in Melghat (Amravati), who delivered a stillborn child at her home on September 1 and also succumbed due to heavy bleeding later as there was no ambulance to take the woman to hospital for the delivery.

The NHRC notices, sent online, have asked the addressees to enquire into the two matters, the action taken on them and submit their reports to the NHRC by October 10, a senior NHRC official told IANS.

Among other things, Advocate Tripathy has urged the NHRC to initiate immediate legal action against the negligent officials who failed to address the issues of human rights violation of the two deceased minor children and their parents.

She also sought the authorities concerned to ensure provision of all-weather roads, adequate ambulance facilities and demanded a suitable compensation payment to the aggrieved families.

The incident came as an embarrassment to the ruling Mahayuti Government as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is also the Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli, the Maoist-infested tribal district in Vidarbha region.

Lashing out at the government for these lapses, Wadettiwar had slammed the government for seeking votes for Rs 1,500 under the ‘CM Ladki Bahin Scheme’, with a huge publicity blitzkrieg, when that amount could have been better utilised for strengthening the rural health care system.