Family members of an elderly man were forced to carry his dead body on a stretcher after the authorities of the government hospital at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district allegedly failed to provide them hearse service.
The deceased, identified as Sunai Majhi, a resident of Kathakura village under Thuamul Rampur block had received severe injuries on his head after he accidentally fell in the bathroom of his house on Monday morning.
Critically injured Majhi was shifted to a hospital in Thuamul Rampur and later referred to the District Headquarter Hospital (DHH) at Bhawanipatna.
He succumbed to his injuries on Monday late night while undergoing treatment at the DHH. Subsequently, his body was sent to the mortuary ward for post-mortem at the hospital.
The family members of Majhi allegedly waited to receive his body for several hours till today morning but were not handed over the body by the hospital staff.
Later they pleaded the DHH authorities to conduct the post-mortem and release the body as soon as possible and also asked the hospital to provide them a hearse van to take back the body home.
When the hospital staff reportedly did not lend any ears to their requests, Majhi's family placed his body on a stretcher and went on carrying him to their native village.
Jai Shankar Majhi, the son of the deceased has blamed the hospital administration for the incident.
“The dead body was taken to the morgue for post-mortem after his death on Sunday night at Bhawanipatna hospital. But even after many hours had passed, there was no communication from the medical, so we decided to carry the body on a stretcher.”
As per sources, Majhi's family members had already carried the body for around 1 kilometre from the DHH when Bhawanipatna Town Police Station came to their aid.
Later, Majhi was taken to Kathakura village in an ambulance. Neither police nor the office of Bhawanipatna headquarters hospital is yet to respond on the matter.