Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launches Mahaprayan scheme for hearse service

BHUBANESHWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday launched a scheme offering free hearse service from government hospitals, awkwardly a day after the shocking video of a man carrying home the body of his wife from hospital. The Mahaprayan scheme was announced in February.

Regional TV channel OTV on Wednesday showed a man from Kalahandi walking with the body of his wife accompanied by his daughter. Dhana Majhi had taken his wife Amon Majhi, suffering from TB, to the district headquarter hospital at Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi, where she passed away.

The channel said Majhi had walked almost 10 km carrying her body before they called senior officials to get an ambulance. Kalahandi district collector Brundha Devarajan told ET that she has ordered a sub-divisional magistrate inquiry into the incident.

"According to preliminary inquiries, the patient was admitted on August 23 and was there during the doctor’s late night visit. The man took his wife away sometime in the wee hours next morning and walked away without informing anyone. The death has not been certified by a hospital doctor," said Devarajan.

Majhi reportedly didn’t have the money to hire a vehicle to take the body home, a 50-km ride from the hospital. This incident has once again raised questions about the availability of basic services in Odisha.

Last month, reports of more than 20 infant deaths since March this year in the village of Nagada in Jajpur district due to malnutrition had left the country shocked. What added to state government’s embarrassment was that fact finding teams from Bhubaneshwar and Delhi found it tough to reach the village that ironically lies near the chrome mines in the state.

The Mahaprayana scheme will be run under the Red Cross and will help transport the poor and dead from government hospitals to their homes free of cost. It is being made available to 30 district headquarter hospitals and a handful of government medical colleges across the state.