30 bodies floating in Ganga trigger Covid panic in Bihar town

30 bodies floating in Ganga trigger Covid panic in Bihar town

Piyush Tripathi & K Kamlesh

Patna/Buxar:  11.05.2021 

Residents of Chausa village in Bihar’s Buxar woke up to the macabre sight of half-burnt bodies dumped in the Ganga washing ashore near Mahadev Ghat on Monday. Villagers said they saw at least 150 corpses, suspected to be of Covid victims, floating down the river at dawn.

The Buxar district administration pegged the number of bodies at 30. “The bodies are not of local residents. It seems they were dumped in neighbouring UP 3-4 days ago,” Buxar DM Aman Samir said. “Instructions have been issued to intensify river patrolling.”

A local resident said he and other witnesses counted not less than 150 bodies. “The situation is dangerous. People in areas are in shock,” he said.

The DM said the unidentified bodies would be cremated in accordance with Covid-safety protocol after autopsy.

TROUBLED WATERS: The bodies may have floated down from UP

‘Govt will bear the cost of cremating Covid-19 victims’

P rem Swaroopam, executive officer of the Buxar municipal council, told a news channel that a probe had already been initiated into “people dumping bodies” in the river. “We have formed three teams to stop people from disposing of bodies like that. The government will bear the cost of cremating Covid-19 victims in accordance with the official guidelines.”

Late Monday, sub-divisional magistrate KK Upadhyay said the cremation of the bodies that washed ashore in the morning had begun. He said bodies were found floating in the river in adjoining Ghazipur district of UP, too.

Some local residents attributed dumping of bodies in the river to the higher cost of organising the cremation of Covid-19 victims and fear of getting infected.