The carrying of a body of an old woman on shoulders in Sorada in Ganjam district on Wednesday due to the failure of the Mahaparayan scheme was severely criticised by Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram on Thursday.
Pradhan in a series of tweets said, “From the Sorada CHC in the Chief Minister’s home district Ganjam, after waiting for hours the deceased’s children carried the body on their shoulders. Where is Naveenbabu’s commitment to ‘dignity in death’ through the Mahaprayan schemeIJ Incapability and inefficiency of the Naveen Patnaik Government has been exposed again,” Pradhan said.
“Is it not repetition of incidentces like Dana Majhi carrying the body of his wife on his shouldersIJ” he further tweeted.
Oram said “Sadly, I have to say that sons walked miles with the body of their mother on shoulders from Sorada near Bhanjanagar, which is in the CM’s home turf.
“The news has been widely covered in media at a time when several dignitaries and sports personalities from the world are in the State capital for the Asian Athletics Championships. The incidence will tarnish the image of Odisha further. I appeal to the Chief Minister to be sensitive towards the plight of common man,” Oram told reporters here.
However, BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb said, “This is unfortunate that such cases are happening from across the country. More unfortunate is that two Union Ministers politicised the matter when such an incidence happened in Odisha.
Awareness and cooperation of all are greatly needed to check repetition of such incidences,” Pratap Keshari Deb added.