In a distressing incident that further hints at a lack of basic facilities for the poor in the country, a couple in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli was on Thursday forced to carry their dead sons on their shoulders for 15 kilometres from a hospital to their village home in Aheri taluka as they could not access an ambulance.
The boys, both aged less than ten died due to fever, after they were denied proper treatment on time.
A video of the incident went viral on social media after being shared by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar.
"A grim reality of the health system of Gadchiroli district has come to the fore again today," he wrote sharing the post on X.
The video shows the couple, in tears, trudging a muddy forest path, each carrying one of their sons on their shoulders.
"Two siblings who came with fever did not receive treatment on time. Within two hours, the condition of both of them deteriorated and within an hour and a half, both of them breathed their last. There was no ambulance to take the body home from the hospital. The parents carried the bodies of both the siblings on their shoulders. Finding a path through the mud, they reached Pattigaon in Aheri taluka, 15 km away, on foot," Wadettiwar wrote.
Wadettiwar also came down heavily on the Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis who is the Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli district and cabinet minister Dharma Rao Baba Atram who won from the Aheri Assembly constituency.
"Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis is the Guardian Minister of this district. This is the constituency of Dharma Rao Baba Atram, the cabinet minister of the Grand Alliance, who captured the assembly constituency with a helicopter. Both of them are saying how we can develop every day by taking events all over Maharashtra," he said.
The LoP urged the ministers to visit the ground to find out how people are living in the district.