A 25-year-old woman died while was being taken to a hospital on a bamboo cot (charpoy) by her family members and local residents after private ambulances and local vehicles allegedly refused to enter her village due to the poor condition of road in Malda district of West Bengal, officials said on Saturday.

State minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury, meanwhile, triggered a controversy by claiming that the woman died because of her “fate” and not the poor condition of roads, drawing sharp criticism from opposition parties.

The incident took place on Friday when the woman, Mamoni Roy, who had been suffering from high fever for the past three days, was being carried on a cot by her husband and local residents from her Maldanga village to a rural hospital in Modipukur, nearly four-and-half-km away, in Bamangola block.

Her husband Kartick Roy claimed that no ambulance or any local vehicle was willing to enter the village due to the poor condition of the road. “We had tried to hire a vehicle. But everyone refused citing the poor road conditions in Maldanga village. We had to walk to the hospital carrying her on a cot,” he said. “But the doctors declared her dead when we reached the hospital.”

Meanwhile, a video of the woman being taken on a bamboo cot by her husband and local villagers surfaced on Saturday. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the video, which has since been widely circulated on social media.

Malda district officials, who sprung into action after the video surfaced, alleged that the family of the woman, who had been ill since Wednesday, initially took her to a local quack in the village instead of taking her to the nearest health centre. It was only when her condition deteriorated that they decided to shift her to the hospital, a senior district official said, requesting anonymity.

“It is a very unfortunate incident. The family could have got in touch with the local government authorities for an ambulance. An enquiry has been started to find out why the incident took place,” the district official said. “The district administration will very soon build a concrete road.”

Reacting to the incident, state’s minister for mass education Siddiqullah Chowdhury stoked a controversy by saying the woman died because of her fare.

“If one out of 100 is bad, why blame the remaining 99? If there is pain in the arm, should I say it is a mental problem? If they write to us, we will repair the roads,” Chowdhury told reporters. “She didn’t die because of bad roads. Death was in her fate.”

Opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the minister should have felt “ashamed” and “apologized” instead of making such remarks.

“Is he a minister? What kind of statement is this? He should have felt ashamed and apologised. It is the good fate of [chief minister and TMC chief] Mamata Banerjee that she is still in power. The people won’t allow her to stay in power anymore… because it is her fate,” CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty told reporters.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also attacked the TMC government over the poor condition of roads and infrastructure in the state.

“The situation of roads and infrastructure is the same across every part of West Bengal. BJP MPs and MLAs are not being able to utilise their local area development funds as the local district administration is not cooperating in many areas,” Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson, alleged.