The plight of Dana Manjhi, a man from a Bhawanipatna who was forced to carry the dead body of his wife on his shoulder for 10 kms as he couldn’t afford ambulance charges, has touched a chord with Bahrain’s Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa.
The Bahrain leader has apparently expressed his wish to help Manjhi. A report published in the rich kingdom’s daily, Gulf Daily News, indicated that the Prime Minister was so upset by the news that he felt he had to do something to help.
Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa read about the man, who carried his wife’s body for 10 kms after the hospital where she died allegedly failed to provide an ambulance for her to be sent back to their village.
The Prime Minister’s office contacted Bahrain’s Indian Embassy, and, in an extraordinary humanitarian gesture has donated a sum of money to help the man and his family.
Courtesy: GDN Online
Odisha Mahaprayana not a Free Ambulance Service
Had Mahaprayana, the hearse service launched by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday, been existing there earlier, poor Dana Majhi in all probability would still have carried his wife’s body on his shoulders.
Mahaprayana is a paid service unlike the ambulance services of 108 (emergency medical ambulance service) and 102 (ambulance for pregnant women). According to its guidelines, the district Red Cross societies chaired by the collectors will fix its price, operate and maintain it.
Majhi’s Kalahandi district, where the new service started on Friday with one Mahaprayana vehicle, has decided to levy Rs 7 per km for the service, chief district medical officer (CDMO) Braja Kishore Brahma told TOI on Saturday. The vehicle would have cost Majhi Rs 420, officially, for the 60 km from the hospital to his village.
Lawyer Files Complaint Against Kalahandi Collector, CDMO
Subash Chandra Mohapatra, a human rights lawyer, on Sunday filed a complaint against Kalahandi district collector, the chief district medical officer (CDMO) and some other officers alleging that they abused Dana Majhi, and his minor daughter after it came to limelight that Dana had left the Kalahandi district headquarters hospital by carrying his wife on his shoulders after the latter’s death.
In a complaint addressed to Bhawanipatna Town police station, Mohapatra alleged that the officers forcibly brought Dana to Bhawanipatna on Friday preventing him from performing the last rites of his wife. The collector also harassed Dana by asking him if he killed his wife, the complaint said. Terming that it was a clear case of offence under The SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mohapatra sought legal action against them.
Courtesy: The Times of India
It’s a shame that in 2016, a poor man carried his spouse’s corpse for 12 km and the PM, Bahrain decided to slap the odisha government by throwing a few dollars at the state.
Remediatial measures should be taken tom and if needed bhata, dalma scheme should be modified to help guy’s like Manjhi.