BHUBANESWAR: A male nurse was sacked and a security agency at Kalahandi district headquarters hospital disengaged from service today for "negligence" in providing a hearse to a tribal man who had to walk 10 km carrying his wife's body on his shoulder on Wednesday.
"The chief district medical officer (CDMO) today disengaged a male staff nurse and the security agency which were on duty on Wednesday. They were found guilty in the preliminary enquiry into the incident," Kalahandi District Collector Brundha D said.
CDMO B K Barhma said the hospital had the facility for transporting bodies from hospital to the residence of the deceased persons.
"Our hearse usually is engaged for about 25 days a month," Barhma said adding Dana Majhi's case was not reported to the authorities by the male nurse Rajendra Rana. Rana was on duty on Tuesday night when Dana Majhi's wife Amang Dei (42) died of tuberculosis. Though Majhi had informed him about the death of his wife and asked for a vehicle for transporting the body, Rana allegedly told him to take away the body on his own, officials said.
About the 'fault' of the security agency, they said, it is the duty of the agency staff to verify death certificate before allowing a body to be taken out of the hospital campus. However, Majhi had gone out of the hospital carrying the body without a death certificate.
Meanwhile, Melghara village in Kalahandi district witnessed a huge crowd as journalists and a Congress fact finding team came to meet Majhi and his 12-year-old daughter. "As my wife died in the night, I called the hospital staff present in the ward. He told me to take away the body. I did not know whether the hospital issues death certificate or arrange vehicle to carry the body. It took 30 minutes to wrap the body in a cloth and console my daughter before I started walking to my village," Majhi told the Congress team.
The video recording of the conversation between Majhi and Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das was shown to journalists at at Bhawanipatna, headquarters of the district. "This is inhuman. It shows the anti-tribal attitude of the Naveen Patnaik government. It must announce a high-level probe into the incident and compensation of Rs 10 lakh for Majhi's family," Das said.