Mumbai: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Maharashtra government on the sad incident in which a couple was forced to carry their two dead boys for 15 kilometres due to a shortage of an ambulance in the Gadchiroli-Amravati districts recently, an official said on Monday.
The NHRC notifications to the state Health Department Principal Secretary and Amravati-Gadchiroli Collectors, stressing the lack of basic health care services in distant areas, were part of a petition filed in the Supreme Court by human rights campaigner Advocate Radhakanta Tripathy.
Congress Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar raised the sad and shocking matter first reported by IANS (September 5) after the distraught couple carried the bodies of their sons, aged six and three, for 15 kilometres from Jimlagatta’s health centre to Pattigaon village in Gadchiroli.
The Jimlagatta health clinic proclaimed the children, who were supposedly suffering from fever, ‘dead’ and handed over the remains to their parents.
However, because no ambulance was available even after several hours of waiting, the bereaved parents were forced to trek 15 kilometres to Pattigaon, cradling their dead children, to perform their final rites.
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Advocate Tripathy cited another case in which a pregnant tribal woman, Kavita A. Sakol of Dahendrai village in Melghat (Amravati), delivered a stillborn child at her home on September 1 and later died from heavy bleeding because there was no ambulance to take her to the hospital for the delivery.
According to a senior NHRC official, the NHRC letters, which were delivered online, requested the recipients investigate the two problems, report on the actions taken, and submit their findings to the NHRC by October 10.
Among other things, Advocate Tripathy has requested the NHRC to take prompt legal action against the negligent officials who failed to address the human rights violations of the two deceased minor children and their parents.
She also asked the authorities to ensure the provision of all-weather roads, proper ambulance facilities, and a suitable compensation payout to the affected families.
The episode embarrassed the ruling Mahayuti Government because Devendra Fadnavis, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Deputy Chief Minister, is also the Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli, a Maoist-infested tribal area in the Vidarbha region.
Wadettiwar blasted the administration for collecting votes for Rs 1,500 under the ‘CM Ladki Bahin Scheme’ with a massive media blitzkrieg when that sum could have been better spent on building the rural health care system.
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Quaid Najmi –IANS
