WATCH: Denied vehicle, Odisha man carries wife’s body on shoulders for 12 km

Majhi’s wife, suffering from tuberculosis, died early on Wednesday morning. Left with little money, Majhi requested hospital authorities to arrange a vehicle for transporting the body.

“I requested everyone, but no one listened. What option did I have other than carrying her,” asked Majhi. He had walked for almost 12 km when some youths saw him and alerted local officials. Soon, an ambulance was sent which took the body to Melghar village.

However, Kalahandi district collector Brundha D claimed that Majhi did not wait for a vehicle to be arranged.

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“We would have surely sent the body in a vehicle,” she told The Indian Express, adding that she has sanctioned for Majhi Rs 2000 from the state government’s funeral assistance scheme and another Rs 10,000 from the District Red Cross Fund.

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Expressing anguish over the incident, former Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das said that despite its promise of development and better healthcare for tribals and Dalits, the Naveen Patnaik government had done little. “When I was an MP, I had arranged two ambulances for the Bhawanipatna hospital. The vehicles could have been used in this case. What is the point of having them if they can’t help a poor tribal in the time of need?,” asked Das.