Nabadwip residents defy lockdown to oppose cremation of Covid-19 suspects

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

KRISHNAGAR, 26 APRIL: Hundreds of local residents took to the streets defying lockdown to protest the cremation of suspected coronavirus victims in the Nabadwip crematorium leading to delay in disposing of the body by several hours.

The district administration could not place the body in the electric pyre of the crematorium due to the objections from the agitating people and crematorium staff, but they finally cremated the body in a wood pyre inside the premises beside the Bhagirathi river last night.

Trouble broke out yesterday afternoon when the district administration carried a suspected Covid victim to the Nabadwip crematorium. On hearing about it, local residents in a large number gathered in front of the Nabadwip crematorium and started agitation declaring that no suspected corona victim will be allowed to be cremated there.

Hundreds of local residents violating lockdown took to the streets and staged protests before the administrative and police officials who accompanied the victim. An altercation ensued between the agitating people and the administrative officials, but the protesting people were no mood to listen to the officials. The situation reached a point where the police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the mob.

According to police sources, senior officers took over six hours to convince the residents that necessary measures were taken to avoid contamination.

“We had to tell them that all protocols have been followed in wrapping up the body of the deceased, as per government guidelines. There was no reason to be scared,” a senior police officer said.

“The body was embalmed in chemicals, wrapped in a prescribed material, following government guidelines. We managed to get a hearse to take the body to Nabadwip crematorium ground under the surveillance of a team of Kotwali and Nabadwip police officers headed by a deputy superintendent of police,” a district administrative official said.

In the last 24 hours, the district administration had to cremate two suspected Covid victims in the Nabadwip crematorium. On Friday, the district administration carried a suspected Covid victim to the Nabadwip crematorium, but the Nabadwip municipal chairman Biman Saha put up a resistance and did not allow them to cremate the victim in the electric pyre. After a long interaction with him, the district team finally cremated the body in a wooden pyre.

On the next day, when another suspected Covid victim’s body reached there, hundreds of local residents took to the street to protest the cremation of any suspected coronavirus victim.

The protest by the locals continued today even when a team of CPI-M leaders headed by the district secretariat member Sumit Biswas staged a silent protest near Poramatala in Nabadwip for an hour. They alleged that the district administration was not following WHO guidelines while seeking to cremate suspected Covid victims. They demanded that no such body would be allowed to cremate in Nabadwip crematorium if the administration did not follow WHO guidelines.

When asked Saha said, “The BJP and CPI-M are trying to do politics over the cremation of suspected corona victims. The administration has repeatedly assured that there was no chance of spread of the virus through the process of cremation and they have followed every guidelines, but they are trying to do politics”.

A local resident, however, alleged that the administration cremated the bodies with untrained persons because of which many charred body parts of the victim were left abandoned on the cremation ground. “We are worried about seeing these body parts left on the ground. This may spread the virus. So, we cannot allow cremation of suspected bodies here”, said a local resident.

Courtesy: Image from Outlook India.