Man carries son’s body in bag: CM says ‘no dearth of govt ambulances’; Health dept orders probe

siliguri/raiganj/Kolkata: Reacting to the incident in which a labourer reportedly carried the body of his five-month-old son in a bag while travelling in a bus after being unable to afford the ambulance charges, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday stated that there is no dearth of government ambulances in hospitals and that the Kaliaganj incident should not have happened.

Superintendent of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) stated that the father of the deceased child from Kaliaganj had not contacted the hospital for an ambulance or a hearse; instead he had gone to private operators.

Ashim Deb Sharma, a migrant labourer from Kaliaganj in North Dinajpur, had carried the body of his son in a bag from Siliguri to Kaliaganj as the ambulance driver he had contacted had asked him to pay a huge sum of money.

Meanwhile, the state Health department has ordered a probe into the incident. Health department has sought a immediate report on the incident from the Medical Superintendent of NBMCH.

“We have no dearth of ambulances. We have provided around 500 ambulances from the state exchequer and MP local area development funds. It could have happened that at the time when he required the ambulance, the ambulances were engaged. Anyways such incidents should not have occurred. I will talk to the authorities,” stated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The baby was admitted at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) ward of the hospital. He died on Saturday night.

On Sunday, Debsharma had asked a private ambulance to ferry the body to his home when he did not get any hearse. The ambulance had asked him to pay Rs 8000, which he could not afford.

“The NBMCH has a help desk inside the hospital premises. If he would have contacted the hospital desk, the hospital authorities would have surely helped him,” said Sanjay Mallick, the Superintendent of the hospital.

Gautam Deb, Chairman of the Rogi Kalyan Samity, said: “On Wednesday, a meeting will be held with the NBMCH and the Siliguri District Hospital authorities. The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials will also be present. In this meeting we will try to find out the ways to ensure that such things don’t occur in future. The Rogi Kalyan Samity has five hearses. However, the person had not contacted anyone. If we had the information, we would have definitely helped him.” The NBMCH does not have its own hearse but has a free ambulance service. The toll-free number is 102. According to the ambulance association who run the service, that person had not called them.

Meanwhile, a team of TMC members visited the house of Ashim at Baruadangi of Mustafanagar Gram Panchayat on Monday morning.

Nitai Baisya, president of Kaliaganj Block TMC Committee, said: “It was inhuman. Had the victim’s family contacted us, we would have arranged an ambulance, free-of-cost.”

The leader stated that they had assured the family of financial assistance from the ‘Samabathi’ scheme.