Amid surging cases of coronavirus, much like Maharashtra, a new story has emerged from Chhattisgarh, where the families of patients who die from the virus are allegedly being forced to pay for collecting the dead body. According to reports, the Bhupesh Baghel government has asked such families to pay 2,500 rupees for storage and carriage of the dead body. This order has led to anger and frustration among the families who have lost their loved ones.
If such reports are to be believed, the Chhattisgarh government seems to have proved itself the most inefficient in handling the coronavirus and this has led to a blast of cases in the state. Despite months of gap between the first wave and second wave of the virus, the Baghel government did not invest in ramping up the medical infrastructure of the state.
Now the cases are exploding and the Chhattisgarh government does not have the medical capacity to provide treatment to patients. So many people are dying that bodies have piled up in the hospitals and the crematoriums are full.
“No one could have guessed that there would be so many deaths all at once. We have enough freezers for the usual number of deaths. But we just can’t understand how places with one to two deaths are reporting 10-20. If we prepare for 10-20, 50-60 people are dying. How can we arrange freezers for so many people at once? Even crematoriums are overwhelmed,” Raipur’s Chief Medical and Health Officer Meera Baghel said.
“We were close to winning against Covid in a way thanks to measures like home isolation. But we are not able to size up this new wave yet. We are seeing cases where even asymptomatic patients are deteriorating really fast and dying of heart attacks,” she added.
The cases of coronavirus have gone up exponentially in the last few days in Chhattisgarh with around 10,000 on Sunday to above 15,000 on Wednesday. Due to the Bhupesh Baghel government’s lax attitude towards medical infrastructure, the public hospitals have exhausted their capacity. Now, most of the people are being forced to go to private hospitals for treatment, where they are charged around 10,000 rupees per day.
Even in such chaos, the Chhattisgarh government is reportedly busy making money and has asked the families to pay 2,500 rupees if the patient dies due to coronavirus, which shows the cruelty and inhuman approach of the Baghel government towards public health.
In the last two and a half years, the Bhupesh Baghel government of Chhattisgarh seems to have failed on almost all fronts – from security to administration to health. A few days ago, many jawans were killed in a Maoist attack in Sukma. Such cases have risen manifolds in the last few years due to the glove-handed approach of the Baghel government in dealing with them.
Previously, during the first wave of coronavirus, the Baghel government allegedly focused on earning money by opening up liquor shops. Now it seems to be directly asking for money from the families who lost their loved ones. The Baghel government needs to get its act together or the health crisis in Chhattisgarh is set to worsen.