GUWAHATI: Assam’s BJP-led coalition government is contemplating on launching an ambulance-type van service to ‘respectfully’ dispatch dead bodies to families.
The move comes after images of a man carrying the body of his 18-year-old brother on a bicycle emerged in a section of the media, triggering public outrage. The incident was reported from Majuli which is Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s constituency.
The road linking the deceased’s Balijan village is not motorable. The youth had died at a government hospital. Sonowal ordered a probe into the incident and directed the State’s health director to rush to Majuli.
Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the “ethical job” of the health department was to save lives. “Dispatching dead bodies to families does not fall within the ambit of health department. Once a person dies, the onus automatically falls on the social welfare department. Usually dead bodies are dispatched by NGOs but we are contemplating if we can have a service, on the lines of 108 ambulance service, to dispatch dead bodies,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“It is our moral responsibility that dead bodies are dispatched home respectfully. That is why we will give funds to the social welfare department to look into this aspect,” Sarma said.
He concluded, “If we deal with the issue of the dead, then the ethical question will arise. The health department is concerned about living beings…The carriage of dead bodies by ambulances under the 108 service is prohibited. They are engaged to deal with the injured and other patients.”
Majuli deputy commissioner (district magistrate) PG Jha said the family of the deceased hailed from adjoining Lakhimpur district but the family members had brought the patient to the civil hospital at Garamur in Majuli as it was closer.
“We were told that the village does not have a motorable road link and the locals there are required to cross a makeshift bamboo bridge to reach the main road that leads to Garamur. The patient was brought on a bicycle by some people on Monday and after his death the same day due to respiratory problems, they left with the body after tying it to a bicycle,” Jha said.
The relatives allegedly did not wait for the hearse van of the hospital.