In a shocking incident, a cleanliness drive in a Government hospital in Assam on Tuesday led to burning of a body, which was kept for post-mortem.
The safai karmacharis of the 100-bed Government hospital at lakhimpur district on Tuesday burnt the body of a youth, which was kept in its dilapidated morgue for post mortem. The deceased, identified as Deba Bora, who had received serious injuries during a road accident on Monday breathed his last at the hospital on Tuesday.
After the death, the doctors of the hospital kept the body in the morgue so that the post-mortem could be done.
However, some of the safai karmacharis of the hospital who were in a hurry to clean the hospital campus due to scheduled visit of a top bureaucrat mistakenly burnt the body before they could realise their mistake and douse the fire.
“The safai karmacharis put fire into a heap of garbage located on the backside of the morgue. Preliminary investigation indicated that the fire from the heap of garbage soon spread to the morgue and caught the body. The doctors said that 20 per cent of the body has been burnt,” said lakhimpur Superintendent of Police B Singha.
The locals, however, alleged that 50 percent of the body has been burnt, the SP said. “We are going to conduct the post mortem on the burnt body,” he said.
It may be mentioned here that Additional Chief Secretary to Assam Chief Minister, MGVK Bhanu is supposed to visit the hospital in lakhimpur, located close to 400 kms from Assam’s capital town Guwahati, in a day or two.
The hospital authorities have undertaken the cleanliness drive in the hospital due to the scheduled visit of Bhanu.