Striking employees play Good Samaritan

Help a daily wage labourer perform funeral of his wife

Hyderabad: The bandh call given by the trade unions on Wednesday proved miserable for a daily wage labourer Mohd Shafi from Mahabubnagar district who was unable to find ways to perform the last rites of his wife Nasarath Begum, who died after giving birth to a baby girl in a private hospital at Katedan on Tuesday night here in Hyderabad.

However, the striking workers and passengers turned good Samaritans by coming to the rescue of Shafi. He left home for his work place in the morning as usual. His pregnant wife was all alone with her two sons at home when she developed labour pains. She went to a nearby private hospital all alone on foot while writhing in pain.

She died after delivering a baby girl in the hospital. Shafi, after returning home in the evening, did not find her at home. After a thorough search, he finally found her dead on the footpath in front of the hospital.

Landed in a piquant situation, Shafi, accompanied by his two sons, carried the body in one hand and infant in another and reached Mahabubnagar in an RTC bus this morning. But after finding no means to reach his native village in Boothpur mandal, a shattered Shafi desperately looked for help.

He was not in a position to afford a private vehicle to carry the body. The striking RTC workers who sensed his problem, came to his rescue by mobilising around Rs.1,800 from the people around.

They called in Child Line authorities who took charge of the infant. The workers arranged a private auto to carry the body. Meanwhile, the infant was shifted to the government hospital for medical care.