The incident has been a matter of discussion in the town.
As per the reports, Bhimsen Kanhar, a resident of Namerabali village under Gochhapada police limits, had gone to a nearby rivulet to take a bath. Due to some reasons, he fell into the water. After coming to know about the incident, his family members went to the spot, rescued him and immediately rushed him to Gochhapada government hospital and then to Phulbani district headquarters hospital (DHH).
However, it was too late. The doctors there declared him received dead.
After registering an unnatural death case, the police handed over the body to the family members after autopsy.
To take the body back to the village, the aggrieved family members looked for the ‘Mahaprayan’ vehicle. Since no such vehicle was made available to them, they were forced to hire an auto rickshaw to take the body back to the village.
When contacted, ADMO of Phulbani DHH, Dr Abhay Pattanayak shifted the blame to the family members.
“Our ‘Mahaprayan’ vehicle has been in the garage for around 15 days after it met with an accident. In its place, as an alternative arrangement, we have a van (OMNI) and our staff are well aware of this,” said Dr Pattanayak.
“We had even informed them about the availability of a hearse. But they took the body in an auto-rickshaw on their own,” clarified Dr Pattanayak.
The Mahaprayan hearse scheme was launched by Odisha Government in August, 2016.
As per RTI information, the Mahaprayan vehicle has only been used only for five times at City Hospital since the inauguration of the welfare scheme.
However, the hospital authorities claimed that the government is charging Rs 10 per kilometre for the hearse facility which is much higher than the rates being charged by private vehicles.
Similarly, only 1,233 dead bodies were transported in Mahaprayan vehicles at SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) in the last two years.
“The private vehicles are charging much less than the fares fixed by the government due to which people are not utilising the scheme and Mahaprayan vehicles are lying defunct at the hospital,” said Administrative Officer of Sishu Bhawan, Lingaraj Behera.
“The number of casualties is very less at City Hospital as critical patients are referred to SCBMCH. However, Mahaprayan van is provided whenever there is a demand, "said Assistant Divisional Medical Officer (ADMO) at City Hospital, Sanghamitra Panda adding that no one has been ever stopped from availing the vehicle.
“When I enquired about the Mahaprayan van to take my relatives’ body home, the concerned authorities informed me that Rs 10 will be charged per kilometre while the operators are demanding additional Rs 200 for cleaning the vehicle,” said the relative of a deceased.
Meanwhile, several stakeholders and social organisations criticised such callous attitude of the concerned authorities.
“The concerned authorities are saying that there is less demand for Mahaprayan vans among people but such lackadaisical attitude on the part of the officials is not justified," said social activist Amiya Bhusan Biswal.
As per reports, the deceased woman, a resident of Panasaput village under Baipariguda Police limits in Koraput district died of cancer at 6 AM on Monday, but her body could not be taken to village for hours due to unavailability of a hearse vehicle under the government-sponsored Mahaprayan scheme.
Sources said, the village of the woman is no less than 70 kms and the relatives expressed their inability to pay for a vehicle on their own. However, after the news was reported on OTV, the district collector sprang into action and arranged a hearse for the family members to carry the dead body.
It isn’t an isolated case as recently on October 20, a dead body had to be carried on motorcycle by the family members allegedly due to unavailability of a Mahaprayan vehicle in Delanga CHC in Puri.