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This is an archive article published on May 23, 2020

Cremations hit due to lack of staff, PCMC urges NGOs to help

Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said four people are required to carry the stretcher from the ambulance to the crematorium, adding that the civic body will provide PPE suits to the crematorium staff and the ambulance driver also.

Mumbai coronavirus cases, coronavirus Mumbai cases, COVID-19 patients burial, Mumbai coronvirus patients burial, Bombay High Court, Mumbai news, city news, Indian Express While the PCMC earlier allowed 20 people to attend funerals, as per its revised order of May 22, 50 people are now allowed at funerals.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to urge NGOs to help in the cremation of bodies, which has become an issue due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. The industrial city has reported 17 deaths due to Covid-19 till now.

“We held a meeting to discuss the issue of disposal of bodies. We have not been able to allocate enough staff for the purpose… so, we have decided to invite NGOs to help us in the disposal of bodies,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express on Saturday.

Hardikar said four people are required to carry the stretcher from the ambulance to the crematorium, adding that the civic body will provide PPE suits to the crematorium staff and the ambulance driver also. “We will ensure that all the four have PPE suits including the crematorium staff, the ambulance driver and one person from the mortuary… But we hope some NGOs will come forward and help carry out the rituals,” he said.

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While the PCMC earlier allowed 20 people to attend funerals, as per its revised order of May 22, 50 people are now allowed at funerals.

On Friday, only one civic employee was present for the last rites of a 50-year-old man from Poonawalle. “The driver said it was not his concern and the crematorium employee said he will not help. My son and I had to help the employee, who had a PPE suit, to carry the body…” said Police Naik Amod Kulkarni, a close relative of the deceased.

The 50-year-old was suffering from exhausation and running a temperature. He was admitted to YCMH on Thursday for suspected Covid-19 symptoms, and died on Friday evening. “Till his death, we were not sure whether he had the infection… his test result was not out… the PCMC had covered the body in plastic sheets, as is apparently done for disposal of Covid-19 bodies,” Kulkarni said.

The test result on Saturday found the man negative for the infection. Kulkarni subsequently released a video of how the body was handled.

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“This should not have happened. There should have been four people… I will question the staff concerned,” said YCMH Dean Dr Rajendra Wable.

Earlier this month, when a Covid-19 patient had died, his relatives had refused to conduct the last rites. A civic hospital staffer almost single-handedly carried out the rituals and the cremation.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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