Maharashtra: A couple from Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district was forced to carry the bodies of their two sons on their shoulders for 15 kilometres to reach their village of Pattigaon from a hospital. The incident occurred on September 4. Visuals of the couple walking through mud to reach their remote village in Aheri Taluk have surfaced on social media.
Two brothers, aged three and six, fell ill with fever on Wednesday when they had gone to visit their maternal grandparents. They could not be administered proper treatement due to lack of proper healthcare facilities in the village. The parents then took them to a priest for traditional remedies. Nonetheless, their condition continued to deteriorate, and both of them passed away just a hour and a half apart.
Due to the absence of paved roads connecting the village to a health center in Jimlagatta and without an ambulance, the parents had no option but to trudge through muddy paths and inundated areas to somehow reach Jimlagatta Primary Health Center. The doctors declared their sons dead. Although an ambulance was called to the clinic after sometime, the parents refused for any assistance and went back home with their sons on their shoulders.
Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Vijay Wadettiwar shared the video of the couple walking with their sons' bodies on X. He said that there was no abulance available to take the bodies to their home, due to which the parents had to walk with their bodies on their shoulders for 15 km.
Wadettiwar slammed Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis for the status of the healthcare system in the district. "This district is overseen by Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and it is the constituency of Cabinet Minister Dharmaraobaba Atram from the Mahayuti alliance, who campaigns through the constituency using helicopters. Both of them regularly host events across Maharashtra, proclaiming how they can lead development," he tweeted.
"Perhaps they should once step down and witness firsthand the suffering and deathly struggles that people in Gadchiroli endure during their lifetime under this event-driven government," the Congress leader added.