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Jammu: 3 months on, district authorities yet to identify proper site for cremating Covid-19 victims
The issue sparked public outrage in the district as two men died on Thursday due to heat and dehydration during the cremation of their relative, a Covid-19 victim.
The district administration has failed to identify a proper cremation site for Covid-19 victims even after three months of the pandemic outbreak.
The issue sparked public outrage in the district as two men died on Thursday due to heat and dehydration during the cremation of their relative, a Covid-19 victim, after they were made to shuttled for over two hours in an ambulance in search of suitable spot in the Tawi riverbed. The two cousins were cremated on Saturday at Shastri Nagar here.
“Jammu district administration has utterly failed to identify a proper cremation site for covid victims. The death of two Kashmiri Pandit cousins is a serious lapse by the administration. Earlier, the family members of two Covid-19 victims were compelled by mobs to take away the dead, one of them half-burnt, to other places for cremation,” said Dr Mahesh Kaul, a prominent author.
“The administration has indulged in genocide on the eve of World Refugee Day. PM Modi must intervene in the matter. It is a national shame,” he added.
Senior journalist Mohit Kandhari wrote on his Facebook page, “Sitting inside their ivory towers, inside air conditioned offices, no bureaucrat can ever evaluate the cost of a human life, of a loved one. By announcing a sum of ₹2 lakh, the district authorities and J&K administration cannot walk free. They need to first identity the culprits who failed to discharge their duty and didn’t save precious lives.”
Kandhari reminded the administration that under the “healing touch” policy of the Mufti government, the compensation to militants surrendering their arms and returning to mainstream was more than what the administration announced for the two KPs, who died of sheer negligence by the administration.
On June 2, a mob had disrupted the cremation of a 72-year-old Covid-19 victim, while another in Domana had compelled a family to take the half-burnt body of their relative off the pyre. It was then cremated at Belicharana in Tawi river.
ADC Ghanshyam Singh had then said, “The administration is already in the process of identifying land in three to four places for cremating Covid-19 vitims to avoid problems.”
On May 14, kin of a former special bureau officer had to shuttle from pillar to post for his cremation in Jammu. He had also died of Covid-19. Administrative inertia coupled with resistance by locals led by two councillors of ward number 6 and 7 had aggravated the miseries of this family as it had to take the body back to the hospital mortuary from Jogi Gate cremation ground. The cremation was done at Shastri Nagar the next day.
Jammu district commissioner didn’t respond to messages despite attempts.
