An incident that shames humanity has come to light from Haldwani in Uttarakhand. Here a poor girl had to carry her brother's body tied to the roof of a taxi to her village in Pithoragarh district due to lack of money for an ambulance. However, taking cognizance of the incident, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered an inquiry into the entire matter and directed the officials to take strict action against the culprits.

An ambulance was not available to take the dead body.

According to information received from the police, Shivani (22), a resident of a village in Berinag, worked with her younger brother Abhishek (20) in a company in Halduchaur, Haldwani. Police said that Abhishek came home early from work on Friday complaining of a headache and was later found unconscious near the railway track, after which he was taken to Sushila Tiwari Government Medical College for treatment, where doctors declared him dead.

People who remained spectators

After conducting the post-mortem, the police handed over Abhishek's body to Shivani on Saturday. Shivani said that she talked to several ambulance drivers standing outside the hospital mortuary to take the body to the village, but they asked for 10-12 thousand rupees as fare. She did not have that much money. So she pleaded to take the lowest fare, but no one was moved.

She said that finally she called a taxi driver from her village and tied her brother's body on the roof of the taxi like luggage and took it home 195 kilometers away. When asked about this, Dr. Arun Joshi, Principal of Sushila Tiwari Government Medical College, said that the matter remained outside the hospital, due to which it did not come to his notice. He said, "If it was an inside the hospital, it would have come to his notice or if he was asked for cooperation, he would definitely have helped."

CM took cognizance

The relatives of the patients standing outside the hospital said that no one has any control over the private ambulances and they charge arbitrary fares for taking patients from one place to another. The Chief Minister has taken strict cognizance of the incident and ordered an inquiry into the matter. A government spokesperson said in Dehradun that Dhami has asked the state Health Secretary Dr. R Rajesh Kumar to conduct a detailed investigation into the matter and take strict action against the culprits. He said that the Chief Minister has given strict instructions to the officials and said that such an incident should not be repeated.