Dana Majhi case: PM Narendra Modi seeks report from Odisha govt

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked for a report on the Odisha incident, where a tribal man reportedly had to carry the dead body of his wife for miles, reports CNN News 18. Dana Majhi, coming from the ruins of abject poverty that plagues Odisha, made news on 25 August when he walked 10 kilometers carrying his wife Amang Dei's  corpse wrapped in sheets on his shoulder, after a government hospital failed to provide him with transportation, in the backward district of Kalahandi. [caption id=“attachment_2977740” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dana Majhi carrying his wife’s body.[/caption] The 42-year-old woman had died of tuberculosis on Wednesday night at the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna. Majhi who lived 60 kilometers away from the hospital, could not afford to hire a vehicle. The hospital management took no accountability of the event, and alleged that Majhi had taken the body without informing the hospital. Majhi, however, denied these allegations and stated that he took the body away when the staff forced him to remove it from the hospital premises. Majhi’s daughter too had accompanied him on his daunting journey. Local reporters had spotted the duo and had called the district collector who had then arranged an ambulance for the remaining 50 kilometers of the journey. After this incident, the state was condemned for its apathy and drew widespread flak. In a bid to control the damage, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the “Mahaprayan” scheme to help the bereaved transport the bodies of their kin from hospitals to their residences. The government had announced the scheme in February keeping in view the success of the Harischandra Yojana, which offered financial assistance to the poor for cremation of their kin.  The Mahaprayan scheme would facilitate transport of the bodies from government and government-affiliated hospitals to the residence of the deceased across the state, said a press release by the Chief Minister’s Office. The scheme is to be monitored by General Administration (GA) and Health and Family Welfare departments. A day after the incident , a probe too was ordered by the district collector of Kalahandi, in order to ascertain the events leading up to the incident of Majhi having to carry his wife’s dead body. “The District Collector of Kalahandi has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Sub-Collector of Bhawanipatna has been directed to conduct the probe and submit a report at the earliest,” state Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singhdeo had said in Bhubaneswar. Majhi’s news crossed international borders when Bahrain's Prime Ministe r Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa sent a donation to help Majhi and his family. Moved by Majhi’s suffering, the prince ‘could not just stand by and do nothing about the suffering’, consequentially deciding to contact the Indian Embassy and making a donation to Majhi’s family.