E-Paper
Ghaziabad: Covid-positive body stuck in limbo for 24 hrs as electric furnace develops snag
Ghaziabad: It took 24 hours for the cremation of a 58-year-old man’s body at an electric furnace at the Hindon cremation ground, as the facility developed a technical
Ghaziabad: It took 24 hours for the cremation of a 58-year-old man’s body at an electric furnace at the Hindon cremation ground, as the facility developed a technical snag on Tuesday. The furnace could be repaired only on Wednesday afternoon, officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation (GMC) said.
Officials of the GMC, which operates the crematorium, said that the body was partially burnt when the furnace developed snag. It took around 24 hours for the snag to be repaired, after which the cremation process was completed on Wednesday, they said, adding that a body takes about one hour to one-and-a-half hours to be burnt to ashes.
The family of the man from Indirapuram, who died of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, said the body was taken to the Hindon cremation ground Tuesday morning.
“The body was placed inside an electric furnace around 11.30am on Tuesday and we were asked to come in the evening to collect the ashes. When we went there in the evening, the caretakers told us that there had been a malfunction and the body was still inside. We were shocked,” the victim’s son said.
“We approached corporation and district officials to get it repaired, and waited for almost an entire day on Wednesday when the rest of the last rites was completed after repairs,” the son said.
GMC officials said that the crematorium has only one chamber instead of a general practice of two chambers.
“The furnace developed a technical snag when the cremation was being taken up. About 10-15% of the process of the last rites were pending when the malfunction took place. When the issue came to our knowledge, we got it repaired and made it operational by 3pm on Wednesday. There was hardly anything we could do about it as the crematorium has only one chamber,”said Manoj Prabhat, GMC’s executive engineer.
“There was a technical snag related to a drain pipe about 10 days ago, and cremation of bodies had got hampered back then also. The electric crematorium has to run with continuous power supply and we have to shut it down for about two days in order to cool it down so that repairs can be taken up. So, we are now trying to improve technology and run it on CNG supply instead of electricity,” Prabhat said.
Senior MCG officials said that the crematorium, which was handed over to them by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), became operational in May.
“We are now trying to expand the facility at the crematorium and it will be done with the corporation’s funds. The GDA has said that they don’t have funds. So, we will get it upgraded from our own funds,” said Dinesh Chandra, municipal commissioner, Ghaziabad.
Santosh Kumar Rai, secretary of GDA, said that the crematorium was constructed by an agency and handed over to the corporation for operations. “The incident is unfortunate. At the time of handover to MCG, no one pointed out any shortcoming. Had the corporation pointed out, we would have got it upgraded then,” Rai said.
