No ambulance, parents in the village of Maha have to carry dead sons home on shoulders

Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), September 5 (IANS): A young couple from Aheri taluka were forced to carry the bodies of their two dead sons — who succumbed to fever after allegedly not receiving necessary treatment on time — from a hospital to their house 15 km away in their village in Gadchiroli, whose guardian minister is Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a senior politician claimed here on Thursday.

A harrowing video of the unidentified couple dragging the bodies of the two minor boys, aged less than 10, on their shoulders and trudging through a muddy forest path was shared by Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Vijay Wadettiwar.

“The two siblings were suffering from fever but they were not treated in time. Within a few hours, their condition worsened and barely an hour later, the two boys succumbed to the disease,” Wadettiwar said, posting a video of the tragedy.

He added, “There was not even an ambulance to take the bodies of the two minors to their village. Pattigaon and the parents had to walk 15 km along the rain-soaked, muddy path. The grim reality of Gadchiroli's health system has once again come to light today.”

The Congress leader pointed out that MahaYuti's ally Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the guardian of Gadchiroli while Dharmarao Baba Atram of the Nationalist Congress Party is FDA minister in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's government.

“Both of them claim that the state can develop every day by holding events across Maharashtra. They should go there and see how people live in Gadchiroli and the number of deaths there,” Wadettiwar said.

This is the second such case from Vidarbha region this week highlighted by the Congress LOP.

On September 1, a pregnant tribal woman gave birth to a dead child at home and then succumbed to her own pain because a local hospital did not send an ambulance to pick her up in time.

The woman, a woman named Kavita A. Sakol from Dahendri village in the Melghat tribal region of Amravati, went into labour and her family called the local health authorities for an ambulance, but they said it could take at least four hours.

Since Kavita had no other option, she delivered her baby at home, it was a stillbirth. Her condition also deteriorated, which worried her relatives. The family arranged a local private vehicle and took her to a rural health centre in Churani, but as her condition deteriorated rapidly, she was taken to Achalpur and then to Amravati.

“The battle for life ended for the mother and the child on Sunday morning. Both lives were lost due to inadequate health infrastructure, exposing the callous officials in Melghat. The government, which is seeking votes with Rs 1,500 per month under the 'Ladki Bahin' scheme, could have spent the money for the huge publicity campaign on ambulances here,” Wadettiwar said.

Both incidents have provoked strong reactions on social media, but there has been no official statement yet.