Bhubaneswar: After a tribal man's 10-km walk with his wife's body on his shoulder drew widespread flak, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday launched "Mahaprayan" scheme to help the bereaved transport the bodies of their kin from hospitals to their residences .

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The Chief Minister launched the scheme at Mahanga in Cuttack district.

The government had announced the scheme six months ago, in February, keeping in view the success of the Harischandra Yojana, in which it offered financial assistance to the poor people for cremation of their kin.

The Mahaprayan scheme would facilitate transport of the bodies from government hospitals and government-affiliated hospitals to the residence of the deceased across the state, said a release of the Chief Minister's Office.

The scheme will be monitored by General Administration (GA) and Health and Family Welfare departments.

For the scheme, 40 hearses would be procured by the government, the release said.

The hearses will carry bodies from the 30 district headquarter hospitals, three government medical colleges and hospitals, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre at Cuttack, Capital Hospital at Bhubaneswar, Shishu Bhavan in Cuttack and the Government Hospital at Rourkela, said a health department official.

A tribal man had to walk 10 km carrying his wife's body on his shoulder from a government hospital in Kalahandi district as he failed to get a mortuary van or an ambulance from the hospital authorities. The moving images of his trudge on TV channels caused outrage across the country.