After Padma Shri Lalji’s Death, Advocate Sends Legal Notice For Medical Care At Airports

Prompted by a petition started by Abhishek Singh, son of Padma Shri Lalji Singh, famously known as the ‘father of DNA fingerprinting in India’ who died of heart attack at the airport in Uttar Pradesh, an advocate has served a legal notice on the Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, for immediate steps to provide medical facilities at all airports across India.

Advocate Gurmeet Singh sent the notice to TN Dwivedi highlighting the non-availability of basic medical facility at the airports.

Gurmeet sent the legal notice after he received an update about the petition started by Lalji's son Abhishek on change.org.

Abhishek’s petition titled "Mandate availability of Doctor, Ambulance & Medical Support across ALL airports in India" has received 158,563 signatures till now.

Lalji had died on December 10, 2017 following a heart attack at Lal Bahadur Shastri airport when he was travelling from Varanasi to Hyderabad. He was taken to Banaras Hindu University Trauma Centre but could not be saved.

Abhishek, shared in his petition, "Had he (Lalji) received the wheelchair assistance that he had pre-booked, timely medical intervention by a medical doctor, oxygen support or an ambulance to rush him to hospital his life could have been saved. It was a full 2 hours since when basic medical intervention was asked for at the airport to when it was provided at the distant hospital at Banaras Hindu University. An ambulance was not even made available and he was transported in a private vehicle as he struggled to breathe during those critical hours. Doctors at the hospital say that had primary care been provided within the first hour at the airport Dr Singh could have survived".

After receiving a mail from change.org as part of its signature campaign model, Gurmeet Singh sent a legal notice to Dwivedi reiterating excerpts from Abhishek’s petition that often airports are at far-off locations and not inside or near main part of the cities and therefore it is also to be taken note of that proper, basic medical care / facility is provided to the passengers or people at the airport.

The advocate said he was moved by the loss the nation has suffered in the demise of Lalji Singh and that it was the government’s prime duty to provide requisite medical care to all.