In a tragic incident, relatives had to carry the body of a man who died during treatment at an NGO in Gunupur village in Kalahandi district of Odisha. The family members alleged that they were not given a hearse van and they had to eventually carry his body on a sling made of clothes.

“We asked for a van but medical officers told us they don’t run van on Mondays,” a relative was quoted to as saying by news agency ANI.

The medical officer of Thuamal Rampur Government Hospital in Kalahandi confirmed the incident.”A private organisation, had taken in that patient at 9 AM but he died by 1:45 PM.

They searched for a vehicle to carry body back to their village but didn’t get one. In our hospital, we have a hearse van for Junagarh, Kalampur and Thuamul Rampur.

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This incident is eerily similar to farmer Dana Majhi’s plight way back in August 2016 at the same district. Majhi hogged the headlines when he was forced to walk around 10 kms with his wife’s body on his shoulders after being denied a hearse van.

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After the incident which was coupled with a huge outrage across India, Odisha government had taken steps to ensure hearse vans were available for everyone in need for free transportation of bodies from hospitals. 

Despite this, an incident of similar magnitude comes to the fore proving there’s hardly any progress made in the region.