In anticipation of the third wave, the PCMC administration has also fixed responsibilities on different officials. (File photo)
After a stray dog was caught on camera nibbling away at a partially burnt feet of a deceased man at Amardham crematorium in Nigdi on June 2, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has issued a show-cause notice to the contractor who was given the job of maintaining the crematorium.
“We have issued a show cause notice to the contractor who was looking after the Nigdi crematorium. He has been asked to reply within two weeks,” said PCMC Additional health and medical chief Dr Anil Roy.
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Deepak Khairnar, a resident of Nigdi who recorded the incident on his cellphone, said, “I had gone to the crematorium for the cremation of the body of an acquaintance… When I reached the crematorium, I saw one stray dog trying to eat the half-burnt part of the body of a Covid patient… Other stray dogs can also be seen in the video.”
“The gruesome incident has happened. I have captured it on video… I fail to understand why PCMC is denying the incident…I think the PCMC is trying to protect the contractor,” he said.
“I wanted to capture the incident on video to highlight how Covid bodies are being treated at the crematorium. After that I shooed away the stray dogs… There is clearly lack of proper security in place as stray dogs are roaming freely within the compound. This must be happening at other crematoriums as well. Will the PCMC wake up and initiate strict measures to ensure that Covid bodies are treated with respect …,” he asked. Khairnar has complained to the PCMC commissioner and submitted the video proof as well.
Dr Roy, however, said the body was not of a Covid patient. “On June 2, the bodies of two Covid patients were cremated at the Nigdi crematorium. One body came at 1.20 pm. The family was present till past 3 pm… it is claimed that the video was taken at 6 pm. Till 6 pm, the body was still burning. The temperature is around 900 degree centigrade. In such a situation, it is impossible for human beings or even an animal to go near it.”
“Since we have the video footage available, we will verify whether it was actually filmed at the Nigdi crematorium. It does not seem to that of a Covid patient as of now… The person who filmed the incident had come along with the body of the second Covid patient …,” he said.
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The family members of the deceased man, however, denied that any such incident took place at the crematorium. “We were present at the crematorium till the body was burnt past 3 pm….I don’t think any such incident took place. I have given in writing to the PCMC commissioner that we have no complaint whatsoever… if such an incident had indeed taken place, we would have been the first ones to complaint,” said the brother of the deceased.
Hiraman Waghere, the contractor, said, “We deny that any such incident has taken place. We have no clue where the video was taken. We had appointed nine persons for the upkeep of the crematorium. When the Covid body was cremated on June 2, there were five persons on duty…It was impossible for anyone to go near the body for seven to eight hours because of the extreme heat… We will submit our reply.”
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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
