CUTTACK: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a show cause notice to the state government as to why compensation of Rs 2 lakh should not be paid to the next of kin of a tribal woman who died due to negligence in the process of child birth on February 2, 2023.
Acting on a petition, the apex human rights panel on Tuesday asked the chief secretary to respond to the show cause notice within six weeks.
On January 31, 2023 at 9 am, Manorama Dongori, 28, was admitted at the DHH Nabarangpur with labour pain. She delivered a stillborn male child at 9.26 am on the same day. At around 8.20 pm on February 1, 2023, Manorama was referred to Sahid Laxman Nayak Medical College Hospital at Koraput as she developed abdominal complications after a blood transfusion. But she died on the way.
The matter reached the NHRC with Jeypore-based human rights activist and lawyer Anup Kumar Patro filing a complaint about it. Manorama was received dead at the Koraput hospital as the ambulance carrying her reached after much delay, Patro alleged seeking compensation for the death.
Pursuant to the direction of NHRC, the special secretary of Health and Family Welfare department had stated in a report that the ambulance left Nabarangpur DHH at 11 pm on February 1, 2023, but broke down on the way. Another ambulance was arranged which picked up the patient from the breakdown site and reached Koraput at 3 am on February 2, 2023 and was declared as brought dead.
In the May 14 order, the NHRC held the state government “vicariously responsible” for the death and said, “This act of negligence has violated the Right to Health and Right to Life of the deceased victim under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”