In a shocking incident, a poor young couple from Aheri taluka of Maharastra’s Gadchiroli district on Sep 5 was compelled to carry the bodies of their two minor dead sons on shoulders from a hospital to their home walking at least 15 km on a rain-soaked muddy path allegedly due to the non-availability of ambulance at the hospital.
The boys succumbed to fever after failing to get proper treatment on time, alleged Congress Leader of Opposition (LOP) Vijay Wadettiwar while castigating the Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the legislator of Gadchiroli, for lack of basic facilities and poor healthcare.
Wadettiwar posted the heart-wrenching video on X, which evoked critical reactions from netizens and over 39K views in less than 8 hours.
In the video lasting 5 minutes unidentified couple is seen lugging the bodies of the two minor boys, both aged 8, on their shoulders and trudging through a muddy forest path.
The LOP showed the video in the Assembly accusing the government of ignoring the poor people and miserably failing to ensure proper health care and other basic facilities to them.
"The two siblings were suffering from fever, but they did not get the treatment on time. Within a couple of hours, their condition deteriorated and barely in the next one hour, the two boys succumbed," said Wadettiwar.
"There was no ambulance to even transfer the two minors' bodies to their village, Pattigaon, and the parents were compelled to walk 15 km through the rain-soaked muddy path. A grim reality of the healthcare system of Gadchiroli has again come to the fore today," he added.
The Congress leader pointed out how the MahaYuti allies, Bharatiya Janata Party's Fadnavis is the Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli while Nationalist Congress Party's Dharmarao Baba Atram is an FDA Minister in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's government.
"Both make claims of how the state can develop every day by conducting events all over Maharashtra. They should go down to the ground level and see how the people live in Gadchiroli and the death toll there," said Wadettiwar.
This is the second instance of its kind from the Vidarbha region this week highlighted by the Congress LOP.
A pregnant tribal woman delivered a stillborn child at her home and then succumbed to her labor pain on Sep 1, after a local hospital failed to send an ambulance to pick her up on time.
The victim identified as Kavita A. Sakol from Dahendri village in the Melghat tribal region of Amravati, went into labour and her family requested for an ambulance from the local health authorities, but they said it could take at least four hours.
Kavita helplessly delivered at home and a stillborn baby was born. Her condition also deteriorated as the family arranged a local private vehicle and rushed her to a rural health center in Churani but she appeared to be sinking fast, they transferred her to Achalpur and then to Amravati.
"Both the mother and the infant died on Sep 1 morning. Both lives were lost due to inadequate health infrastructure and exposed the callous officials in Melghat,” said Wadettiwar.
“The government, which is seeking votes by paying them ₹ 1500/month under the 'Ladki Bahin' scheme, could have spent the mega publicity blitz money for ambulances here," he added.
Both incidents evoked sharp criticism on social media but there has been no official response so far.
