Ghats see cremation surge, people settle for last rites closer home

Surendra Singh Gaur, a prominent traders’ leader of Hardoi, died in Lucknow last week.

Since the cremation sites in Hardoi and nearby Kannauj, were full, his family decided to consign his mortal remains to flames at his native village Jogipur, that too in a field. Normally, most of the cremations from Hardoi take place at three ghats close to the Ganga.

The only cremation site that the Hardoi Nagar Palika runs in Hardoi town is taking in 25 bodies on average each day.

“To my knowledge, hardly two or three bodies were cremated in a week at this site,” Padam Singh Yadav, said former district president of the Samajwadi Party.

Three ghats in Kannauj are also seeing a massive surge in cremations, about 60 a day, up from eight to 10 a week. Similarly, the Panchal Ghat of Farrukhabad district is seeing 70 to 80 bodies being cremated each day.

“People are thinking of cremating (their loved ones) close by rather than wait for a day or the next day. Mohammadabad is 45 km from Panchal Ghat. The places that are away from the Ganga are seeing this phenomenon,” said Saral Dubey, a social activist in Farrukhabad.

In Kannauj, some people were asking where the bodies were coming from.

“There is just one 100-bed ward at the medical college in Kannauj, 88 beds are occupied and doctors are advising patients to stay home,” said Kamal Kishore Manu, an independent journalist.

The district with large rural swathes was allegedly facing an inordinate delay in RTP-CR reports.

“People do want to get tested but reports are (taking) more than a week to come by, “said Arif Baig, a social scientist.

In Fatehpur, Mohd Waseem, a social activist, said every household had a flu patient.

“Two days ago, the flu claimed five lives in Asothar village in a matter of two hours,” he said.