Odisha: Tribals used as votebank but denied facilities, says Juvenile Justice Board

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], Jan. 7 (ANI): The Juvenile Justice Board of Odisha on Saturday termed the shocking incident of man carrying his dead daughter on shoulder after failing to get a hearse van as 'shameful', adding that the tribals are used as votebank by politicians during elections but when they are in need, they are deprived of even the basic facilities. "The case of Dana Majhi was an eye-opener. It is said the dead body should be treated with full respect, but the government is unable to serve this purpose. The government which uses the votebank of tribals to win elections and on whom the bureaucrats base their policies, at the end, they are deprived of all the facilities. This is the most shameful thing which can happen," Juvenile Justice Board member Namrata Chadha told ANI. Showing the two parallels that existed in the country with the bureaucrats getting the best of facilities and the poor denied even the most basic ones, Chadha said an amendment in the constitution is the need of the time. "If a senior official gets ill, special helicopter is arranged for him. The entire administration gets on its feet if a minister's health is affected. But, the poor is deprived of even the basic facilities. This calls for a big change in the nation and constitution," she said. Meanwhile, former health minister Niranjan Pattnaik also slammed the state and central government for their lax attitude towards such issues, calling them 'non-serious' and 'unsympathetic.' "Neither the central government nor state government is serious and sympathetic towards the problem of the poor. You can see in case of Dana Manjhi. Neither the Centre nor the state government helped. Government is not serious at all. In the recent case, they have taken action against some temporary employee. It shows how serious the government is. They are not bothered," Pattnaik told ANI. Echoing the tragic incident of Dana Majhi, another issue came to fore wherein a man on Wednesday carried his dead daughter on shoulder after failing to get a hearse van. The man, identified as Gati Dhibar, of Pechamundi village walked around 15 kilometres carrying his five-year-old daughter, who died at the Palahada Community Health Centre (CHC) in Angul. While expressing grief over the incident, Anil Kumar Samal, the District Collector of Angul, said an explanation has been sought from the SDMO and assured that appropriate action would be taken. "Following dead body carrying incident in Palahada, the sub-collector visited the spot and spoke to the family members of the deceased. On the basis of the report, security guard and junior hospital manager has been suspended. We shall ensure nothing undignified happens with any dead body," Samal added. (ANI)