An emotional letter from a mother to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has forced an uncaring Kanpur city administration to show some compassion.
Usha Sharma, whose eight-year-old son Aman Khan died because security arrangements for the Prime Minister’s convoy allegedly prevented her from taking him to hospital on July 3, had written to Gandhi and the PMO, holding the local police responsible for his death.
The PMO then demanded an explanation from the city administration. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had addressed the IIT-Kanpur convocation on July 3.
Following this, Additional District Magistrate (city) Shailendra Singh called Aman’s father Tassaduq Hussain on Thursday evening asking to see him with his wife Usha Sharma.
“I am in touch with the parents and have invited them to offer condolences,” said Singh. “We also want to know how it happened so that we can put in place procedures to avoid a repetition in future.”
The authorities denied any communication from the PMO in this regard.“We had submitted a memorandum the day after the incident, but there was not a single word (of condolence) from any official then,” Aman’s father Hussain told HT.
State Congress sources said Gandhi had received the letter and wished to speak to Aman’s parents.
{{/usCountry}}State Congress sources said Gandhi had received the letter and wished to speak to Aman’s parents.
{{/usCountry}}“We are deeply pained at the incident. Our condolences are with the family,” Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said in New Delhi.
However, intelligence sources said the eight-year-old was already dead when he was being taken to a nursing home in Shyam Nagar colony.
He was later taken to Regency Hospital, 12 km from the colony.
Sources said that since there was no doctor at the nursing home, a nurse examined the boy and told the parents he was dead.
However, not trusting the nurse, the parents were taking the boy to another hospital.