Octogenarian Meera Devi, the widow of renowned freedom fighter Gour Chandra Mohapatra of Bhadrak district, on Tuesday passed away while she was undergoing treatment at AMRI Hospital in Bhubaneswar. She was allegedly denied of freedom fighter’s family pension and deprived of appropriate Covid care in the State. It may be noted here that acting on a petition filed by Supreme Courtlawyer and rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday had sought Action Taken Reports (ATRs) from the Union Home Secretary and the Odisha Chief Secretary over the deprivation of bare human rights to Meera Devi. In this regard the esteemed newspaper “The Pioneer”, on 15th June had published a news bearing caption “Freedom fighter wife denied Covid treatment” by bringing the sorry plight of the octogenarian widow.
During Covid there is a high requirement of ECMO machine in the State. However, none of such machines is in operational mode as of now in the entire State causing frequent deaths for Covid related hospitals. The failure of the State in ensuring functional ECMO machines results in frequent deaths and shifting of super rich patients and top bureaucrats to other States, Tripathy pointed out.