Three men and a woman were seen pushing a stretcher with a body on it in the dead of night in Bihar's Nawada district. The body, wrapped in a pink blanket, was the mother of one of the men pushing the stretcher. He had to drag her body for nearly two kilometres from a health centre to his home after he was allegedly denied an ambulance.
On Sunday night, Ajay Sao's mother suddenly fell ill, and she was taken to the Primary Health Centre in Akbarpur, where she died. When he asked for an ambulance to take her home for one last time, the request was denied. A staffer allegedly told him that the facility doesn't provide ambulances for the dead.
The stretcher wasn't given to him easily either. His wife and son had to stay back at the facility as guarantors until he returned the stretcher.
His relatives said that when they implored the staff to give them an ambulance, arguing that it was late at night and difficult to arrange alternate transport for the body. "We were told that they can't give an ambulance as it's not allowed, even as ambulances were parked at the facility," said one of the relatives.
"Even the stretcher was given to us after much pleading. We were told that the stretcher would be given to us only if two of us stayed back here as guarantors," he said.
Ajay Sao's wife said that she pleaded with the staffer asking him to give the stretcher for "humanity's sake". "I promised him that my son and I would be there till the stretcher is returned. After that, he let us take the stretcher," she said.
The health centre has yet to issue a statement regarding the incident.
Meanwhile, the family members have demanded strict action against the staff involved from the administration.
With inputs from Ashok Priyadarshi
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