New Delhi: A video of a boy pushing a handcart with an ailing man on it in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh has gone viral on the social media, news agency PTI reported. However, officials on Sunday refuted the allegation saying the incident took place due to lack of an ambulance was not correct.
According to the report, the video had surfaced on social media on Saturday with the caption that the ailing man’s family did not get an ambulance, evoking angry reactions from netizens.
District Collector Arun Kumar Parmar, who ordered an investigation into the incident, in a statement issued on Sunday said the claim about the absence of an ambulance was incorrect.
The man, identified as Dayal Shah, was admitted to the district hospital on January 29 after he suffered a leg injury. He returned after some days to his home that is just 500 metres away, the official said.
On Friday, the man felt pain again and went to get admitted in the hospital, Parmar said, adding, “We have checked the call record of the 108 ambulance service and did not find any call from the man or his kin. The family has also said they took the man to the hospital (on the handcart) on their own.”
In a similar incident last year, a family in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh had to carry the body of a four-year-old girl on their shoulders as the authorities allegedly did not provide a hearse to them to return to their village.
According to reports, the child's family said they first took her to Buxwaha Health Centre for treatment where her condition deteriorated. The family then rushed her to the district hospital in adjoining Damoh, but she died the same day.
The girl's grandfather Mansukh Ahirwar alleged that they had asked the hospital staff for an ambulance to carry her body home, but they did not get a positive response from them.