Baby dies as auto stopped for Andhra minister’s procession

Amaravati: An eight-month-old baby died due to the delay in reaching hospital as the auto-rickshaw carrying her was stopped allegedly for a procession of Andhra Pradesh’s newly-appointed Women and Child Welfare Minister, Usha Sricharan.

The incident occurred near Kalyandurgam in Anantapur district on Friday night.

According to Ganesh and Eshwaramma, they were taking their sick child to the Rural Development Trust (RDT) hospital when their auto-rickshaw was stopped by the police for the minister’s procession.

The couple alleged that a half-an-hour delay in taking the baby to the hospital resulted in her death.

The procession was taken out to welcome Usha Sricharan, who was visiting her constituency for the first time after being inducted into the state Cabinet earlier this week.

The police had stopped traffic for the procession and as a result the auto carrying the child also got stuck.

A Dalit group along with the baby’s parents and the deceased’s body staged a protest outside the hospital demanding action against the police officers responsible for the tragedy, while the district police denied that it had stopped the traffic.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) called it a ‘murder’ by the minister and police. TDP President and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu questioned why a sick baby was not allowed to reach the hospital on time.

“What is the answer you have for the grief-stricken parents of the infant,” he asked the government.

TDP General Secretary and Chandrababu Naidu’s son, Nara Lokesh, demanded action against the police officers who stopped the traffic and became the cause of the baby’s death.