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Bhubaneswar: A day after the body of an old woman was carried on shoulders from a hospital in Sorada of Ganjam district, Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and his senior cabinet colleague Jual Oram harangued the State Government and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for ‘failure’ of the Mahaprayan vehicle meant for carrying dead bodies from hospital to home.
Pradhan questioned the claims of the state government on successful implementation of the scheme in Odisha, especially in Sorada which is the constituency of CM Naveen Patnaik.
“From Sorada CHC in CM’s constituency Ganjam, after waiting for hours the children carried the dead body of their mother on their shoulders. Where is Naveen babu’s commitment of ‘dignity in death’ through Mahaprayan scheme? Incapability and inefficiency of Naveen Patnaik Government have been exposed again,” Pradhan stated in a series of tweets.
“Is it not repetition of incidents like Dana Majhi carrying dead body of his wife on his shoulders?” he asked?
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram also launched a scathing attack on State government and appealed to streamline the scheme. “Sadly, I have to say that sons walked miles with the dead body of their mother on shoulders from Sorada near Bhanjanagar, which is in CM’s own constituency. The news has been widely covered in media at a time when several dignitaries and sports personalities across the globe are in the State Capital for Asian Athletics Championship. The incident will tarnish the image of Odisha further. I appeal to the Chief Minister to be sensitive towards the plight of common man,” Oram told reporters here.
BJD hit out at two Union Ministers for doing petty politics over the matter. “This is unfortunate that such cases are being reported from across the country. More unfortunate is that two Union Ministers politicised the matter when such an incident happened in Odisha. Awareness and cooperation of all are greatly needed to check repetition of such incidents”, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Deb said.
Unable to get a hearse, two persons were forced to carry their mother’s body on their shoulders from a hospital at Sorada in Ganjam district yesterday. The body, tied in cloth and slung to a piece of bamboo, was carried to the village Sorishabili, about two km from the hospital.
The incident is reminiscent of Dana Majhi who walked 10-km carrying his wife's body on his shoulder in Kalahandi district in August last year. The incident had triggered public outcry world-wide.
