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Cancer patient succumbs to illness at Jammu hospital before seeing his family in UP
The 50-year-old labourer and his attendants had toiled hard to get travel permission, but his application remained stuck in protocol, legal formalities and documentation process
A terminally-ill Uttar Pradesh resident’s wish to see his family remained unfulfilled as he died at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here late on Friday.
Narinder Singh (50), a migrant labourer from Mirzapur Bela in UP’s Bijnore district, was hospitalised at GMCH in Jammu on April 18 after being diagnosed with last-stage cancer.
Singh’s distraught attendants had been shuttling from pillar to post to get the administration’s permission for arranging his travel to his village in an ambulance for he could see his family one last time.
“Immersed in protocols, legal formalities and documentation process, the cancer patient finally breathed his last at the hospital late on Friday. The administration ignored his clinical condition and kept seeking documents like residence proof, vehicle and recommendation of the hospital authorities. It was quite unfortunate that he couldn’t see his family before dying,” said Vishal Bharti, a senior journalist, who toiled hard to help the man.
The administrative inertia has come under sharp criticism of the scribes here.
“The government officers need to be a little more sensitive and listen to the reasons rather than burying their wisdom under the niceties of the law. Laws should be enabling instruments, not obstructions,” said another senior journalist Zafar Choudhary.
However, the administration did intervene after the poor man died.
As per a GMCH official, the administration arranged an ambulance to shift the body to his village on Saturday. “Two attendants with some cash, ration and eatables accompanied the deceased to his native village on Saturday,” he said.
It may be recalled that a prominent hotelier along with a very influential person had made a total mockery of the lockdown on April 12 when they escaped from a red zone in Jammu and travelled 270 km in an official car to reach Srinagar.
