CUTTACK: Even as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has come up with a standard operating procedure (SOP) for cremating claimed and unclaimed bodies of people succumbing to coronavirus at various Covid facilities, no such step has yet been taken to streamline the process in rural areas of the district. Delay in disposing of the bodies has raised serious concerns.
The body of a 52-year-old man from Mangalpur village in Nischintakoili block on Sunday lied at his house for over 12 hours as none from his family turned up fearing infection. Similarly, the 75-year-old mother of a person from the village, who succumbed to the virus, died of heart attack while grieving beside his body the same night.
The villagers alleged they had informed Nischintakoili Tehsildar and BDO of the deaths and requested them to make arrangements for shifting the bodies to the crematorium. However, tehsildar Manas Ranjan Tarasia and BDO Karndev Sammadar reached the village the next day and the bodies were then shifted to a nearby crematorium.
A day later, the wife of the man whose mother died of heart attack, breathed her last and this time too, the body was cremated after significant delay. In another case, a person from Anuapada village in Kendrapara died after testing positive at the Covid care centre at Mulabasant in Mahanga block on Monday night. After failing to cremate the body at the designated crematorium in the locality, the block administration had to shift it to Satichaura on Tuesday.
Sources said though sites for new crematoriums to cremate bodies of Covid victims have been identified in blocks, shortage of manpower remains an issue. “Even as the administration has declared an incentive of Rs 7,500 for disposal of bodies of Covid victims, nobody is coming forward to take up the risky job,” said an official. PD, DRDA, Cuttack Ambar Kar said a SOP would be framed soon for shifting and cremation of bodies of Covid victims as soon as possible.