Bhanjanagar: Just two days after a tribal man carried his daughter’s body on his shoulders for 8km to reach a local hospital for autopsy, a woman of Bhanjanagar area in Ganjam district also carried the body of her four-year-old daughter after she failed to get a hearse, reports said.
According to sources, Shona (4), daughter of Subash Gouda of Munigadi village under Aska block, was admitted to Bhanjanagar sub-divisional hospital as she was suffering from some ailment.
However, the minor girl breathed her last while undergoing treatment Saturday morning. Unaware of availability of hearse that transports bodies from hospitals to the deceased’s village for last rites, the family members of the girl wrapped the body in a bedsheet and set off for the local bus-stand to take a bus while her mother held the body in her arms.
The family could be seen crying while they walked to the bus-stand. The matter came to the fore after some media persons came across them and alerted hospital chairperson who then arranged a hearse and sent the body to the village for final rites.
As per reports, the girl’s father resided in Bhubaneswar and earned a living by working as a daily wager. He had recently come home after his daughter Shona caught fever. He had first admitted the girl to a local hospital from where she was referred to Bhanjanagar hospital.
“We are illiterate and unaware of the availability of hearse. So, we were walking with the body as we could not afford a rickshaw,” said Subash.
It may be noted here that a man from Atankpur village under Rayagada block in Gajapati district was forced to trudge 8 km with the decomposed body of his daughter on his shoulder for post-mortem after the police failed to turn up.
Mukund Dora’s eight-year-old daughter had gone missing since October 11 in the flood and deluge after the landfall of cyclonic storm Titli. Later, her decomposed body was found floating in a nullah Thursday.
Though Mukund had reported the matter to the police, the later allegedly took some photographs of the body in the nullah and failed to initiate subsequent steps to send the body for autopsy. Left with no option, Mukund packed the body in polythene and carried it on his shoulders to the local hospital for autopsy.
Later in the day, Gajapati district administration extended a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to Mukund Dora, the father of the deceased girl.
PNN
