From now, even the poor can have a dignified departure.

The state health department, which completed the tender process to buy ambulances for hearse services before the model code of conduct was imposed on March 10, received five ambulances delivered and would get 19 more soon.

These air-conditioned ambulances will transport free of cost the bodies of poor patients who died in government hospitals to their homes.

State health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said the department would provide free hearse services across all districts with deputy commissioners as the monitoring authority.

A source from the health department directorate in Namkum said the idea of a free hearse had been floated in the wake of reports of poor people having to physically carry the corpses of relatives on their backs, on cycles and carts.

The source in the health department said purchase orders were placed before the model code of conduct and vehicle delivery had begun. Currently, the ambulances are parked on the health directorate campus in Namkum.

“All processes had been completed before the model code of conduct was enforced and purchase order had been given before March 10. We are now getting delivery of ambulances. We will be gradually distributing them to all 24 districts after completing the registration process of vehicles with the transport department. The DCs of the respective districts will chair the body that will monitor the use of the AC vehicles,” said the source.

He added that right now there was no government hearse service in any state-run medical college and hospital or district hospital. Not everyone can afford private operators. “The state has plans to have 50 such ambulances as hearses that practically means at least two ambulances for each district,” the source added.

Ashwini Rajgarhia, founder president of Zindagi Milegi Dobara, a Ranchi-based social outfit, which started the free hearse services from RIMS in 2017 said they had six ambulances for hearses and other services but welcomed the government initiative.

“We have six ambulances but of course there is need for more such services. Private operators charge around Rs 16 per kilometre for taking a corpse which not many poor people can afford,” said Rajgarhia. In Jamshedpur, private operators charge around Rs 500 for taking dead bodies on ambulances to anywhere in the city from MGM hospital in Sakchi.