Dubai: COVID-19 claimed the life of a high ranking civil servant in Uttar Pradesh just one day before his retirement.
Deepak Trivedi, chairman of the state’s Indian Administrative Services Association (IAS) succumbed to the virus on Thursday.
Trivedi, 60, was hospitalised at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI) after testing positive for Covid-19.
Trivedi, a 1985 batch officer, was posted as the chairman of the Board of Revenue and had been elected as president of IAS association.
Media reports said the officer had to wait for treatment as there was no ambulance available.
“Unfortunately, he [Trivedi] had to wait for several hours before being admitted to the SGPGIMS as no ambulance was available. It was after the intervention of several senior bureaucrats an ambulance was sent to his home to rush him to SGPGIMS. Trivedi was to retire on April 30, 2021,” journalist Sravan Shukla wrote in an article today.
Moreover, at the hospital Trivedi had to wait in the ambulance for around an hour as the hospital said no bed was available. “The hospital told him we have no information about you and the bed cannot be allocated. He was admitted only after top officials intervened,” said Sanjay Sharma, editor of 4pm newspaper in a post.
His death came close on the heels of the demise of ex-Uttar Pradesh Minister Haji Riyaz Ahmad who was also suffering from COVID-19.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ahmad (69) died at a hospital in Bareilly on Thursday morning, his son-in-law Arif said.
He will be buried in his ancestral village Gauhar.
Ahmad, a five-time MLA from Pilibhit, was a minister in Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhliesh Singh Yadav’s government.
Meanwhile the Allahabad High Court and its Lucknow bench remained closed on Thursday to mourn the death of justice. Virendra Srivastava who died of the coronavirus on Wednesday.
The 59 year old was undergoing treatment at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI) in Lucknow.
