Panchayats arrange funerals of 336 extremely poor Covid patients

LUCKNOW: Village panchayats arranged funerals of 336 extremely poor persons who died of Covid in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh during the last one-year, official records revealed. This figure comes at a time when there are reports of many villagers shying away from getting vaccinated due to fears and myths.

This data from a report prepared by the panchayati raj department says that village panchayats in the state spent a total more than Rs 28.60 lakh on the funeral of 572 extremely poor persons who died during last one year.

“Of the 572 people whose funerals were arranged with the help of money provided by village panchayats, 336 died of Covid and 236 due to other reasons,” said an official sharing the contents of the report.

The data does not count the number of deaths that occurred due to the pandemic among poor and non-poor rural families in Uttar Pradesh.

The state government on June 20, 2020, issued a GO (government order) mandating village panchayats to provide Rs 5,000 financial assistance from funds available to them under the state finance commission to the extremely poor families to perform funeral of any of their member who died of Covid or otherwise.

Another GO issued on April 29, 2021, provided for immediate assistance of Rs 5,000 for the funeral of anyone who died of Covid. The village panchayats were asked to use that money for the same purpose if family members of the deceased were not coming forward to perform the last rites. The government reiterated both the GOs recently when some bodies (allegedly of Covid patients) were found floating in the river and asked DMs to ensure the use money for funeral of the destitute with full honour.

The report further said a maximum number of cases where village panchayats provided Rs 5,000 assistance each were reported from Varanasi, where funerals of 78 persons (31 Covid and 47 non-Covid) were arranged by village panchayats. The next highest number was reported from Unnao — 22 Covid and 26 non-Covid.

In Hardoi, village panchayats arranged funerals of 2 Covid and 21 non-Covid persons, in Ambedkarnagar 2 Covid and 12 nonCovid, in Ayodhya 10 Covid and 5 non-Covid in Mahoba all 14 Covid and no non-Covid and in Gorakhpur 7 Covid and 5 nonCovid. “Cases were reported from almost all the districts but around a dozen reported the highest number of cases of village panchayats organising funeral of the extremely poor/ destitute,” the official said, adding “The scheme providing Rs 5,000 assistance for the funeral will continue.”