Authorities on Wednesday ordered the removal of two doctors posted at a primary health centre after a heart-wrenching video surfaced online showing a young man taking his sister’s body home from the facility on a motorcycle.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Shishir Kumar Verma said after the video went viral on social media, an investigation was carried out and action was taken against the superintendent of the health centre located in Bidhuna, Dr Avichal Pandey, and Dr Kriparam, who was posted there.

The decision was taken on instructions from Uttar Pradesh Health Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, Verma said.

Giving details about the incident, the chief medical officer said 20-year-old Anjali of the Naveen Basti area of the district was allegedly electrocuted while using a water-heating immersion rod on Tuesday.

She was brought to the community health centre, where doctors declared her dead, following which her family members decided to take the body home without a post-mortem examination, Mr Verma added.

Anjali’s brother Ayush climbed on the motorcycle with her body tied to his back using a dupatta. His other sister also climbed on the two-wheeler and held the body from behind, the official said.

Pathat took to the social media platform ‘X’ to inform about the action taken against the doctors.

In a post in Hindi, he wrote: “Taking cognisance of the viral video of a body being taken away on a bike in CHC, Bidhuna, of Auraiya district, I have given orders to the CMO to remove the superintendent and the doctors related to the case from the CHC along with an adverse entry.” “Along with this, I have also directed to ensure ambulance facilities for patients in all CHCs and PHCs,” Pathak added.

However, CHC Superintendent Dr Pandey, who was relieved from his post, said he was unaware of this incident. “If the relatives of the patient had asked for an ambulance to take the body, it would have been provided to them,” he added.

The main opposition Samajwadi Party targeted the state government over the issue.

“The funeral of health services under the Yogi government, brother takes the dead body of his sister home on a bike,” it said on ‘X’.

“The news of a sister’s dead body being carried home on a bike outside the CHC in Bidhuna of Auraiya is a very sad and shameful incident… The administration and the health department of the BJP government, which makes tall claims of development, could not arrange for an ambulance. Shameful,” it added.

Kerala is facing financial problems due to the Centre’s unfriendly fiscal approach but the state will not stop implementing welfare schemes, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday.

Amid the continuing political slugfest between the ruling BJP at the Centre and opposition parties in the states over doling out freebies, Vijayan asserted that Kerala does not accept the central government’s stand that there should be no freebies.

“Efforts are being made to lead the state to achieve its goals without compromising development and welfare activities,” Mr Vijayan, who is heading the country’s lone Left-led government, said at a briefing here.

Criticising the Centre for its approach to states in terms of fiscal matters, the senior CPI(M) leader acknowledged that the Kerala government was facing financial problems.

“It (Kerala government) is facing extreme attacks from the central government on the financial front,” Mr Vijayan said and reiterated that with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), states have lost a lot of power in collecting taxes.

He said that despite the Centre’s unfriendly financial approach, the state government would not back down from implementing welfare schemes.

According to Mr Vijayan, the state is trying to overcome crises by raising its own revenue and through careful financial management.

Fiscal management of the state is based on the basic principles of economic consolidation by boosting tax collection and controlling excess expenditure, the chief minister said.

Noting that the state’s right to tax collection has been restricted to petrol, diesel, and liquor, Mr Vijayan said the fixing of ceilings on GST rates and the significant reduction of the revenue neutral rate have been a blow for Kerala’s revenue.

This year, there is a shortfall of Rs 57,400 crore in the amounts received from the Centre, the chief minister said.

Further, Mr Vijayan alleged that the central government denied Rs 19,000 crore of the loans that the state deserves, and there was also a Rs 8,400 crore shortfall in revenue deficit grant compared to last year.

The increase in the state’s own tax revenue in 2021-22 was 22.41 per cent and the same rose to 23.36 per cent in 2022-23.

The chief minister also highlighted that the state’s revenue deficit has come below one per cent (0.9 per cent) for the first time in history.

“All these (factors) indicate the success of Kerala’s fiscal consolidation activities as per the schedule set by the Finance Commission,” he said.

Ukraine’s military spy agency claimed responsibility for the assassination of a Russia-backed lawmaker with a car bomb in the occupied eastern city of Luhansk on Wednesday, an operation it said it conducted with local resistance forces.

Mikhail Filiponenko, a lawmaker in a Russia-installed local assembly, had been active in Luhansk’s pro-Russian separatist movement since 2014. He had served as one of the top commanders in the army of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic.

The agency said Filiponenko was eliminated in an early morning explosion. He died at the site, it added on Telegram messenger.

It accused him of organising dungeons for civilians and prisoners of war in Luhansk region.

“Filiponenko himself brutally tortured people,” agency said, giving no details.

In September, Filiponenko was elected to the regional parliament in a vote that drew widespread international condemnation.

Bomb blasts targeting senior Russian-installed officials in occupied parts of Ukraine have been a regular occurrence since Russia ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in Feb. 2022.

Luhansk is one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claims to have annexed since the start of its invasion, something Kyiv and its Western allies strongly reject.