BHOPAL: A 58-year-old tribal woman, Bhuriya Bai Saharia, sleeping outside a fertilizer distribution centre, after not getting urea fertilizer for two consecutive days, died on the intervening night of Wednesday-Thursday in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh.

The tragic incident happened just a few hours after the local MP and union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, had arrived in his constituency.

Bhuriya Bai belonged to the Saharia tribe, one of the three particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) residing in MP.

According to her relatives, she had first lined up at the fertilizer distribution centre in Bageri village on Tuesday, but had to return empty handed to her village, located around 20 km away.

She reportedly lined up again at the centre on Wednesday, but couldn’t get the fertilizer yet again. Instead of returning home, she stayed back like others and slept outside the centre on Wednesday night, hoping that she would be among the first ones on Thursday morning to get the fertilizer from the centre.

However, she fell ill while sleeping outside the centre.

Her relatives said that they called an ambulance, which never came. Later another farmer rushed her in his private vehicle to the health centre in Bamori.

With her condition deteriorating, she was referred by doctors to Guna city, where she died at the hospital in the early hours.