BHOPAL: As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to mount, the city falls short of space for cremating and for burying the bodies. The second wave of the pandemic has walloped the state harder than it did last year. The number of people dying and being afflicted with the disease is spiralling with each passing day.
Out of 41 bodies lying at the Bhadbhada cremation ground, 33 fell prey to the coronavirus, but the space in the crematorium is limited and the family members are asked to wait for their turn. The Jahangirabad burial ground is also facing a space crisis as the place dedicated for corona-related deaths is in a crunch.
The manager of the Bhadbada crematorium, Laad Singh, said that, to perform the last rites, they had only four workers and, on the day, 41 bodies reached for the last rites. Out of 33 corona patients who died in the past 24 hours, 17 are from Bhopal. The rest were from the other part of the state.
The bodies in cases of normal deaths can be handled by the relatives of the deceased, but the body of a corona victim can only be handled by the staff of the crematorium. He added that, on the day, three bodies were cremated in the electric crematorium because there was no space to set the funeral pyre. Similarly in the Subashnagar crematorium last rites have performed in which people had died due to corona and due to the normal disease.
The situation at the only dedicated Jangirabad burial ground is pathetic. The ground is running out of space because of the increasing number of corona patients. The manager of the burial ground, Rehan Khan, said that, as the number of bodies coming to the ground was increasing, the space which was left now was full of stones.
He added that they had written to the district collector of Bhopal to level the area by dumping soil on the stony land. Months had passed, but none of the government officials was paying attention to the appeal. He added that, if the soil was not restored, it would be difficult to take more bodies to the burial ground.
He said that the administration had not given the amount which was promised for performing the last rites of corona patients. He added that Rs 5,000 per body had been decided upon, but, till date, the administration had given only Rs 4.5 lakh and the payment of around Rs 5.5 lakh was still pending.
