No ambulance for tribals in Madhya Pradesh

Even as Madhya Pradesh is setting its eyes on becoming a 'Smart City', a tribal family in the Umaria district of the state was compelled to carry a deceased family member for a 20km distance, on a cot, as the district hospital failed in providing them an ambulance.

The police failed in providing them any vehicle for carrying the corpse, following which two family members carried it all the way to Shahdol, the district headquarter.

The deceased, Vishali Baiga, had committed suicide. After preparing the panchnama, the police asked the family to transport it to the nearby district hospital in Shahdol for the post-mortem.

However, the poverty stricken family had no means to carry the body to the hospital, around 20km away from their village.

The family members tried their best to call up the district hospital for an ambulance but to no avail. So two of Vishali's family members loaded the body on a cot and carried it on their shoulders to Shahdol, in five hours.

After completing their gruelling journey, they reached the Shahdol district hospital at around 8 pm, where the autopsy was performed.