BHUBANESWAR: A man was forced to carry his mother’s body on a stretcher after Capital Hospital here allegedly failed to provide him hearse service under Mahaprayan Yojana.Manas Bahubalendra from Dagarpada village in Khurda was seen carrying the body of his 82-year-old mother on a stretcher outside the hospital.
Bahubalendra said his mother died while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Monday. However, the hospital authorities failed to provide him with a hearse vehicle under Mayaprayan Yojana to take the body to his village for cremation, he alleged.
“I tried everything and requested the officials but they denied. As I didn’t have Rs 5,000 to carry the body of my mother in a private ambulance, I decided to walk and told people that I will reach the village in three hours, around 50 km from here,” Bahubalendra told the media.After he covered some distance with the body on stretcher, a few social workers noticed him and extended help to his village in an ambulance.
Capital Hospital authorities, denied the charges. “As the hospital has only one hearse under Mahaprayan, which was returning from Banapur after providing service to a family of another patient, we asked the person to wait for some time. But he refused and moved out of the campus with the stretcher,” said a official from the hospital.