New Delhi, Chandigarh:
The Prime Minister has written to the family of a patient who died during the PM's visit to Chandigarh on Tuesday. The family of the man who died blamed the prime minister's security; the patient and his ambulance were held up for an hour at the hospital, they say.
(Read: Prime Minister's letter)"I am writing to you to express my profound sense of sadness at the death of your husband, Sumit Verma, yesterday. I understand that he could not get access to the Post Graduate Institute Hospital in Chandigarh in time because of the restrictions in place for my visit there. This is something I deeply regret. I have issued instructions so that in future, authorities are more sensitive to the concerns of the common man while imposing such restrictions for reasons of security," said the PM's letter.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says sorry, that his Chandigarh visit delayed 32-year-old Sumit Verma's hospitalisation and led to his death.
The PM was attending a convocation in the Post Graduate Institute Hospital in Chandigarh when a car carrying Verma, a kidney patient from Ambala who had suddenly developed complications, came to the main gate.
The security men asked the family to try another entrance.
The family went from one person to the other begging for entry as Verma lost precious moments.
"We went to the emergency and high emergency wards. He held my hands and said I won't live for long. He was alive for an hour's time in PGI. We had a harrowing time for two hours. As tears dropped from his eyes, I understood that he had breathed his last," said victim's niece.
"Our uncle was crying, saying please save me. He was only 32. My humble request to the PM is that the family should be looked after," said Dheeraj Verma, victim's nephew.
Now Verma's family: His young widow and two children have no savings to fall back on, as Verma, a small businessman, was ailing for the last two years.
They have accepted the PM's apology and the two-lakh-rupee compensation.
But is this compensation enough for the glaring error on part of the state?