Action on Andhra officials for letting Covid victim’s body being towed away

HYDERABAD: A municipal commissioner and a sanitary inspector of a town in Andhra Pradesh were suspended for allegedly permitting the local civic staff to tow away the body of a Covid-19 victim to the cremation ground with the help of an earth mover on Friday.

The incident occurred in Palasa-Kasibugga municipality of Srikakulam district. Collector J Nivas suspended municipal commissioner T Nagendra Kumar and sanitary inspector N Rajeev, after a video of the municipal staff carrying the packed body of a 72-year old Covid-19 victim on an earth mover went viral on social media and was flashed even on the television channels in the afternoon.

A senior official in the Srikakulam information department said the deceased, who had worked as a Class IV employee in the municipal office, was ailing and suffering from comorbidities. He succumbed at his residence in Udayapuram area on Thursday night.

“The doctors of Palasa government hospital said they would have to conduct Covid-19 tests on the body as per the protocol. On Friday morning, it was revealed that he was Covid-19 positive,” the official said.

While the family did not come forward to cremate the body, the neighbours pressured the municipal authorities to take it away at the earliest.

“Since it was a small town, there was no ambulance facility to take the body to the cremation ground. The municipal authorities thought of bringing an ambulance from Srikakulam, but the neighbours were not willing to wait till then,” he said. “Hence, the municipal commissioner had no option but to shift the body to the cremation ground using an earth mover,” the official said.

He said none of the family members came to the cremation ground though the municipal staff had offered them PPE kits and masks.