Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): In an unfortunate incident, a child, aged seven died in an ambulance stuck in traffic for hours after suffering a snake bite at Sonbhadra Lodhi toll plaza on Wednesday. Following this, the family members of the deceased staged a protest by laying the dead body of the child on the road. The police arrived at the spot soon after and cleared the traffic after persuading the family.
The Mineral Department inspects the trucks loaded with sand ballast on a regular basis. This causes regular traffic snarls at the toll plaza causing inconvenience to commuters. On Wednesday, a similar inspection was carried out due to which the road leading to Varanasi was blocked for hours. The ambulance was also caught up in this traffic congestion.
Saddam Hussain, whose nephew, identified as Chand Babu, died in the ill-fated ambulance said that he was going to Varanasi for his nephew's treatment. They are residents of Singrauli. There was another child in the ambulance as well. When the ambulance reached Robertsganj, it got stuck in traffic owing to the inspection. Vehicles lined up for around one and a half kilometers owing to checking by the Mineral Department.
Seeing the seven-year-old, dying on the spot, the family members placed the body in front of the barrier set up by the inspectors and created a ruckus. The Circle Officer of Robertsganj city reached the spot along with police officers Balmukund Mishra and Rahul Mishra. The officer in charge got the jam cleared up by persuading all people. People alleged that there is regular traffic congestion at the toll plaza owing to the checking of trucks; however, no action has been taken to prevent such occurrences.
Police officer Rahul Mishra said that such traffic congestions are frequent. As a result, the Lodhi and Gurma police outpost in-charges work in a war footing to clear the traffic congestion. They have also written to the Mineral Department to resolve this problem, but no action has been taken yet.
No action has been taken in this incident as the relatives of the deceased child did not opt for a post-mortem. However, action will be taken against the accused if they get the post-mortem done. It should be mentioned that this is not the first time such an incident took place. Patients in ambulances get stuck at the Lodhi toll plaza for hours causing inconvenience to them. However, there has been no action taken by the district administration or the mineral department to this effect.
