Police cremate bodies of Covid victims abandoned by families
DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand police under its initiative of Mission Hausla has cremated total 583 bodies of Covid-19 infected who were abandoned by their families out of fear of getting infected.
Following the increased number of bodies being abandoned by the families of the Covid patients, the state police has decided to counsel them so that they don’t abandon bodies of their dear ones. 0
In most of the cases, police officials say the family members of the infected people refuse to take the bodies of infected people from hospital. The hospital authorities then inform police about it, which then cremate them as per Covid-19 protocol on their own. Before that, they urge the families to take the bodies for their last rites, but they refuse out of fear of Covid-19 in the ongoing pandemic.
“Since the initiative have been started on March 24 by the state police to provide help to the needy ones in this second wave of the pandemic, we have cremated 583 bodies of Covid-19 infected people who were abandoned by their families after they died. Due to fear, neither their families nor any other organisation were coming forward to cremate them after which our personnel came forward to have them their last respects,” said
Ashok Kumar, director general of police.
Kumar said that the police personnel along with hospital authorities urge the family members of the dead not to abandon them and perform their last rites, but they “refuse to come fearing infection.”
“Considering the present pandemic situation, we understand the fear of people, but we would try to counsel the family members to not abandon their dear ones and leave them in their last journey. Saying that, we would not turn away from the ongoing initiative of Mission Hausla and cremate the abandoned bodies with proper respect and rituals following Covid-19 protocol,” said Kumar.
Social activists have meanwhile condemned the “unfortunate” practice in the pandemic.
Social activist Anoop Nautiyal who has also been monitoring the pandemic situation in the state since last year said, “It is both morally and ethically wrong. How can the family members abandon their dear ones who were with them in good times? No dead deserve this in the last journey.”
“It is a degradation of moral values in this pandemic. The Covid victims should be cremated by their families with due respect,” he said.
Under Mission Hausla, state police has also been providing various sort of help to the needy ones in pandemic including providing oxygen cylinders and arranging hospital beds.
Till Friday, the department received 21891 SOS calls on its helpline in which it provided oxygen cylinder to 2003 people while arranged hospital beds for 657 people across the state.
Among other bits of help, it has also donated plasma in 193 cases, provided medicine to 11426 people, arranged ambulance for 518 people and provided ration or cooked meals to 25619 people.
DGP SAYS POLICE PERSONNEL URGE THE FAMILY MEMBERS OF THE DEAD NOT TO ABANDON THEM.