Morena civil surgeon Dr. Ashok Gupta has been issued a show-cause notice over the incident of an eight-year-old boy having to sit with the dead body of his two-year-old brother on lap for hours, while their father looked for a vehicle in and around the district hospital to take the body back home. A two-member committee will probe the incident.
Morena collector B. Karthikeyan told THE WEEK that chief medical and health officer Dr Rakesh Sharma and chief executive officer of Zilla Panchayat Roshan Kumar Singh would conduct the probe and submit a report within three days. The collector said that action will be taken on whosoever was found guilty in the probe. The family had been provided immediate financial assistance, Karthikeyan said.
The incident had occurred on Saturday, but the videos of the boy sitting patiently near a nullah batting off flies over the body of his brother with one hand, went viral on Sunday, attracting a huge criticism for Madhya Pradesh government, particularly its health services.
The boy was identified as Gulshan Jatav of village Badfara in Ambah, who had accompanied his father Pujaram Jatav to the Morena district hospital to seek treatment for his seriously ailing younger brother Raja (2).
Sources said that in the course of treatment, Raja succumbed and the body was handed over to the father. However no ambulance or hearse van was made available to carry the body back to the native village and Pujaram was reportedly told by the hospital staff to arrange for a private vehicle himself.
Pujaram, who did not have enough money to hire the available vehicles then made Gulshan sit with the body of his brother on the roadside near a nullah and went in search of a vehicle at a cheaper rate.
The poignant scene of little Gulshan sitting with a dead body on lap for close to two hours and batting flies off patiently attracted the attention of locals and then the local media. After intervention, police took the body back to the hospital where Pujaram was found and finally an ambulance was made available to take the body back.
Opposition Congress got into an offensive mode over the incident with MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and ex-chief minister Digvijaya Singh attacking the government and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Also, the national office bearers of the Congress arms like the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India took up the issue. At per the direction of NSUI national president Neeraj Kundan, state president Ashutosh Chouksey sent across local NSUI office bearers to the family and took the responsibility of schooling of Gulshan. Also the NSUI members made available daily essentials to the family.
On Monday, Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that the state government had taken serious cognizance of the incident and spoke of the decision to issue notice to the civil surgeon and a probe into the incident. He, however, said that the father of the boy had gone to his relative’s place leaving the body with his eight-year-old son.
Also, a video of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who conducted a road show for local bodies' polls in Morena on Sunday night apparently trying to dodge a question by the media on the issue went viral on Sunday, causing the MP Congress to launch a fresh attack on him and the BJP government.
