New Delhi: A video of an elderly man dragging his ailing wife on a handcart to a hospital in Uttar Prdaesh's Ballia district went viral on Tuesday, prompting UP deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak to order a probe into the matter.
The incident took place in Andaur village of the district on March 28, PTI reported.
In the video, Sakul Prajapati, a resident of Andaur village in Chilkhar block, is seen carrying his 55-year-old wife Jogni to the hospital on a cart.
Chief Medical Officer Neeraj Pandey said the deputy chief minister has ordered the director general of medical and health to probe the matter.
"In a viral video from Ballia, an elderly man is seen taking a patient to the hospital on a cart. On receipt of the information and taking cognizance of the viral video, I have directed the director general of health to conduct an inquiry and take action against the culprits," Brajesh Pathak tweeted.
On March 28, Prajapati took his wife to a health centre that is three kilometres away from his house on the cart as he could not find an ambulance.
The doctors in the health centre gave some medicines and referred his wife to the district hospital, PTI quoted Prajapati as saying.
Leaving his wife on the cart at Piyaria village, Prajapati then returned home to take clothes and money. He then took her to the hospital on a mini-truck, Prajapati said.
However, his wife died during treatment in the hospital, PTI quoted police as saying.
Prajapati said his wife died at around 11 pm. He claimed that the hospital refused to provide an ambulance to take the body home. saying the service was not available at night. He then hired a private ambulance for Rs 1,100, PTI reported.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav targeted the Yogi Adityanath-led government over the "lack" of adequate health facilities in the state. Yadav said in a tweet that the BJP government in the state was not spending enough on the health sector.
"Even if a small part of what is being spent on false advertisements of achievements in the health sector in UP would have been allocated for medical services that saw a huge improvement during the SP rule, people dying due to lack of stretchers and ambulances under the BJP government could have been saved," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.