Nitish Kumar orders probe into demand of bribe for post-mortem

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday ordered a probe into alleged demand of money by officials for conducting post-mortem of a flood victim, who died of diarrhoea, officials said.

"The Chief Minister has directed Khagaria district magistrate and Health Secretary to investigate into the matter and take action against the guilty if the allegations are found true," an official in Chief Minister's Office here said.

Khagaria is one of the worst flood affected districts, where flood victims staged protests against inadequate relief last week.

Bihar Disaster Management Minister Chandrasekhar, who was in Khagaria on Sunday, termed the incident as serious and asked the concerned officials to take action against those responsible.

"After I got this news, I have alerted doctors in flood affected districts to take note of this. I will not spare any one involved in it," he said.

According to officials in Khagaria, a youth Rajeev Kumar, who had taken shelter in a relief camp, died of diarrhoea on Saturday. But when local media reported that officials demanded bribe of Rs 500 from his family for conducting the post-mortem, the district administration swung into action.

Taking serious note of it, Nitish Kumar has warned officials that such incidents should not be repeated in flood affected districts.

About 40 people have died and nearly 38 lakh affected in the Bihar floods with many areas, specially the riverine belt of 12 districts, submerged.

However, most rivers including Ganga, are receding and the floodwaters are also decreasing fast. More than 3.5 lakh flood victims are still in relief camps set up by the government and they are reluctant to return to their villages.

--IANS

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