Samaritans raise around Rs 10K, help Guj tribal couple take

son’s body home Rajkot, Sep 13 (PTI) Samaritans raised around Rs 10,000for a poverty-stricken tribal couple from Fatepura in Dahoddistrict of Gujarat to help them carry their dead son home. The hapless couple were left stranded at a bus stationhere with no money. Soma Sanglala’s son Suresh, who 10 years old, had sufferedparalysis attacks and was being treated at the civil hospitalin Rajkot for the past several days. Soma, who worked as a farm labourer in neighbouringJunagadh district, decided to leave the hospital along withhis wife and their ailing son after running out of money. They left the hospital along with Suresh and reachedcity’s central bus depot in the afternoon yesterday, RajkotCentral Bus Depot manager Nishant Vermora said. "They were confused and distracted unsure about what to dowith their ailing son as they had no money. They asked somepassengers for help with money to purchase tickets. When weknew about this, we called 108 ambulance. The medical staff ofthe ambulance declared Suresh dead," Vermora said. The couple said they had no money to purchase even a bustickets, let alone hire an ambulance to carry their dead sonhome which is nearly 400 kilometres from here, the managerclaimed. "The bus depot staff and passengers then decided to raisefund for them so that they could carry their dead son home,"he said. In a matter of just a few hours, around Rs 10,000 wasraised so that the couple could hire an ambulance to carry thedead boy home and perform last rites, he added. ‘A’ Division Police Station ASI Suresh Makawana said, "Wegot a call from the city control room. The boy was alreadydeclared dead by the medical staff of the 108 ambulanceservice. So, we sent the body for post-mortem andcarry out other formalities." PTI VJA KA PD NRBTIR