Corpses of Covid-19 victims cremated in the open forest in the Almora district in Uttarakhand.
One day after India Today TV exposed the gross failure of the Uttarakhand government The state government has issued a statement regarding the handling of corpses of Covid-19 victims, because of which people were forced to cremate their relatives in the open forest.
The government has claimed that the place in Almora district where bodies were cremated in the open forest is a “Administration designated for cremation place where corpses are cremated in accordance with Covid-19 protocols”.
It has also been alleged that the story “has not been verified and is sensational in nature”.
“SDM Almora, AMA-ZP and EO-NP Almora are responsible for the location. They have made their best efforts. There are no designated cremotriums in the hills, but ghats have been designated for cremation. The man in the PSA kit is one Government employee performing his duties, “the state health department said in a series of tweets.
However, the reality in Almora is vastly different from the lofty claims made by the Uttarakhand government.
India Today TV stands by its report.
On May 20, India Today reported that people in several villages in Almora district opposed the cremation of Covid-19 victims near their villages for fear of contracting the virus.
#Uttarakhand #Covid Crisis | Relatives carry out cremations themselves. India today @aishpaliwal brings this report from Ground Zero. # 7at7 | @preetichoudhry pic.twitter.com/ClDqsfUaip
– IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 20, 2021
They have also written several letters to the state administration expressing their fear and requesting that the bodies be cremated elsewhere outside of their villages.
Faced with this opposition from locals, family members of Covid-19 victims resorted to cremating her loved ones in a forest in Almoraand turned it into a temporary crematorium.
When India Today visited this website, we discovered that these cremations were carried out without the supervision of the state government.
Family members of several Covid-19 victims spoke to India Today on camera and said they had received no government assistance or guidance in cremating their family members in the open forest.
Government Claim: The forest area is a designated place of cremation
Reality: No government official on site, no demarcation or boundaries set for the ground, people are on their own
The Uttarakhand government has claimed that the Bhaisoda farm (where mass cremations take place) has been officially designated as a place for the cremation of Covid-19 victims.
If so, the government knot officers should be on site before and after the cremation to assist people in carrying out the cremation in accordance with the Covid-19 protocols.
When the India Today team arrived at 9:30 am on May 19, a JCB was working near the cremation site and the road to the crematorium was badly damaged.
Around 12:30 p.m., a vehicle with relatives of a Covid 19 victim approached the site.
No one from the state administration was present on site to assist the family members in carrying out the cremation. There was no knot officer.
Speaking to India Today, the family said they had traveled from afar to cremate the victim.
India Today’s team stayed on site until 4:30 p.m. We left the site as soon as the cremation was over, but no one from the state administration was there all day.
The fact that no one from the administration visits the cremation was also confirmed by local villagers.
“When I went to the construction site, I couldn’t see anyone from the administration there. In fact, we complained to the authorities that relatives of Covid-19 victims had left their PPE kits open. Sometimes even stretchers with them on The body will be brought back. There is no one from the local administration running the families, “said Kamal Adhikari, the local village of Pradhan.
When asked if he saw anyone from the local government on May 19th (when India Today was visiting), he said, “No.”
On a stretcher were the bodies of Covid-19 victims who had been left behind after the cremation.
Munna Lal, 35, said his father had had a fever for the past 10 days and he could be hospitalized after major difficulties.
“Within 24 hours of being admitted, my father died of Covid-19. We had to carry his body into the forest and cremate him there without the help of the administration.”
Government claim:: SDRF conducts Covid-19 cremations
property:: It only does it for unclaimed bodies
Another claim made by the Uttarakhand government is that the SDRF is conducting cremations of Covid-19 victims.
However, on the day India Today visited the cremation site in Almora Forest, there were no SDRF staff on hand to support the families.
SDRF commander Navneet Bhullar told India Today TV that the SDRF team is carrying out cremations, but “only unclaimed bodies”.
This was repeated by Praveen Alok, spokesman for the SDRF.
India Today tried to seek the government’s answer, no one answered
While India Today was covering the matter, he attempted to contact Almora District Magistrate Nitin Singh Bhadauria and the local MLA Rekha Arya. Despite repeated calls and messages, none of them answered.
Our team also went to the DM office on May 21, but had to return as no one from the office answered.
The villagers resisted the Covid cremations and wrote letters
India Today has also written copies of letters from villagers (who are staying near the old crematorium) to the state administration urging authorities to stop cremating Covid-19 bodies in their village crematorium.
In the letters, the villagers had raised concerns about the virus and stated that they used water from the river (along which cremations were traditionally held) to feed their cattle.
This apparently resulted in the bodies being taken to Bhainswara Farm and set ablaze.
ALSO SEE | Mass burns in the open air on the hills of Uttarakhands Almora | Basic report
إرسال تعليق