Health dept starts independent probe

MP | 16 May 2023 | Kolkata: The state health department on the basis of a primary report submitted by the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMoH) Darjeeling, initiated a probe into the incident in which a daily wage labourer was denied a vehicle to take his 5-month-old dead son to Kaliagunj in North Dinajpur from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri. 

Sources said that the primary report submitted by the CMoH Darjeeling mentioned ‘misunderstanding’. The Health department will carry out a thorough investigation into the matter and take stern action if anybody is found responsible. 

The Health department earlier asked the district administration to probe into the incident in which a labourer had to carry his son’s dead body in a bag for nearly 200 kms as he was unable to pay the charges of an ambulance. 

The incident was reported in Siliguri. Ashim Debsharma, the father claimed that he had travelled in a public bus with the body of his five-month-old child in a bag for 200 kilometres as he did not have Rs 8,000 as demanded by an ambulance driver for taking him home in Kaliaganj from Siliguri. Debsharma stated that he had to put the body in a bag and travelled by a local bus. 

He also stated that an ambulance driver under the 102 scheme told him that the facility was free for patients, but not for transporting corpses. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/health-dept-starts-independent-probe-518828