Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The principal bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to publicise the hearse service by issuing stickers, radio messages and other means.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf passed the order on a petition filed by social activist Rashid Noor Khan. The petitioner sought directions to be issued to state government for operationalisation of a toll-free helpline number for booking and coordinating the free hearse made available under the State Free Hearse Service, MP Mukti Vahan Yojana.
As per the court order, 148 hearses have been deployed across districts under the scheme. However, the general public is not aware of how to avail the services. The petitioner also sought directions to establish a dedicated toll-free helpline at the state level for booking, coordinating and monitoring the vans, and to integrate the helpline with existing emergency response networks under the National Health Mission framework, along with ensuring wide publicity.
The advocate appearing for the State submitted that a dedicated toll-free number, 155334, has already been set up for providing hearse services.
