Mr Gowda's younger brother Bhaskar Gowda died on Tuesday at the Kasturba hospital in Mangaluru, 10 days after he was brought in with severe jaundice.
When the minister arrived with his family to take the body, the hospital asked his brother's son for Rs. 40,000. When Mr Gowda's nephew handed Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes that were banned on November 8, the hospital refused to accept them.
The minister reminded the officials that hospitals are bound to accept banned notes till November 24, but they didn't budge, saying private hospitals were not included in the government's order.
Mr Gowda finally paid by cheque to have his brother's body released.
The upset minister asked the hospital for a written statement and said he would order an inquiry.
"One should be able to give old notes to hospitals and since this is not happening, it is becoming very difficult and it is causing inconvenience to patients," Mr Gowda, the Minister for Programme Implementation, told reporters.
"In such a situation, where the government has made a decision, there should be considerations for patients. This step has done nothing but has resulted in a lot of inconvenience to the public at large. I have asked them to give it to me in writing, the kind of inconvenience that was caused to them."
The hospital's top executive Saghir Siddiqui told NDTV that he had asked for an explanation, and was told by officials that they were only following the government's order on demonetisation.
After the currency ban, the government said old notes would be accepted for a limited period by government hospitals, clinics, for railway tickets, for bill payment and at toll booths.
PM Modi said the ban on the two highest currency notes would help check tax evasion and terror funding, and appealed to people to bear with hardships for a few more days.
Source: NDTV
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