Pathak, from the health ministry, tweeted: “In the viral video from Ballia, an old man is seen taking his wife to the hospital in a cart. After receiving information and learning about the viral video, the Director General of Health has been asked to investigate the incident and take strict action against those responsible.”

In the photo, Sakul Prajapati, 58, a villager in Chilkhar block is seen taking his sick wife, Jogni, 55, to the hospital.

Prajapati took his wife to the health center which is 3 km from his house in a cart as he couldn’t find a ride.

The doctors there administered some medicine and referred his wife to a bigger hospital. He then left his wife in a wagon in the village of Piyaria and returned home to collect clothes and money and then took her to the hospital in a mini truck.

But tragically, his wife died while receiving treatment at the hospital.

Prajapati claimed the death occurred around 11pm and the hospital refused to provide an ambulance to take the bodies home, arguing that ambulance services were not available at night. He then rented a private ambulance for Rs 1,100 (Rp 208,000).

Chief Medical Officer Neeraj Pandey said the deputy chief minister had ordered the director general of medical and health to investigate the matter.

In response to the incident, Samajwadi Party chairman Akhilesh Yadav criticized the state government for the lack of adequate health facilities in the state.

“Even if a small part of what is spent on false advertising of achievements in healthcare in Uttar Pradesh would be allocated to medical services, surely patients could have been saved,” Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.