TIRUNELVELI: A video footage, in which the residents of Melaseval were seen carrying an elderly man's dead body in the neck-deep water of Palayankalvai canal to the graveyard, has gone viral on social media. Sources said the body of the 92-year-old man, Kulasekaran from Manickanagar area, had to be carried due to the lack of a bridge over the canal.
"The bridge that was constructed across this canal collapsed due to a flood two years ago. The demand of the residents to reconstruct this bridge is not fulfilled. To ensure that the water does not drag them down and the body does not slip from their shoulders, residents tied a rope from the bank to the other side," said a resident.
However, officials claimed that the villagers could have brought the body to the graveyard through another pathway by walking an extra half kilometre. "Some residents had raised the demand for a bridge to higher officials," he added. Speaking to TNIE, District Collector V Vishnu said the proposal for the construction of the bridge was already sent and that works would begin once monsoon is over.