In the wake of the controversy that arose over three corpses being transported in one hearse, the officials from the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital have clarified that it was done to accommodate many corpses in the limited number of vehicles own by the Coimbatore administration.

Relatives of a patient who died at CMCH on Monday protested before the mortuary, alleging that the corpse’s delivery was delayed and claimed that two or more corpses were being transported in a single hearse. Tension prevailed when the relatives got into an argument with the hospital officials. The issue was resolved only after the Resident Medical Officer R. Soundaravel intervened.

Clarifying the issue to the Covai Post, a higher official from the CMCH said that the Coimbatore District has 11 hearses to transport the corpses to the CMCH for postmortem. “Since bodies from places including Pollachi, Valparai and Nilgris come to CMCH for postmortem, we usually have a number of corpses that need to be transported. We currently have 11, which are usually sufficient. But, on Monday, there were 14 bodies to be transported, which made the task difficult for us,” he said.

He further added that since there were more corpses, it took them a little longer than the normal time to take them to distant places like Erode and Tirupur. But he said that the hearses are well-equipped and spacious enough to carry two to three corpses at a time.

He alleged that the issue was being politicized by private ambulance drivers whose business was largely hit after the introduction of government hearses. “Usually, 80 percent of the corpses were transported by private ambulances, but the introduction of government hearses has shrunk their business drastically. This is why they are creating such controversies in order to bring about a wrong impression on the government facility,” he explained.