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Admin steps in as unclaimed bodies pile up at Rims

Ranchi: Bodies of several persons who have died with Covid-19 were abandoned by their families and were lying unclaimed before they were cremated by the district administration . According to official figures, 30 patients from various parts of state and the country have succumbed to the virus in Ranchi and six bodies were rejected by their families who were scared of getting infected.



Sources at Rims said several bodies were kept in the mortuary for more than 10 days and the hospital was staring at a shortage of space if the district administration had not stepped in. “Four bodies continue to remain at the mortuary awaiting cremation,” said a Rims morgue staff.

A senior official in the Ranchi administration said, “Through this pandemic, I have learnt the funeral rituals followed in different faiths and religions as I have personally monitored the last rites of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh patients. In one instance, we had to cremate a body in Mandar as his sect was not registered with any burial ground in Ranchi.”

Among the 30 deaths reported at Rims Covid ward, nine patients were from Ranchi, three each from Giridih, Hazaribag and Dhanbad, two each from Ramgarh and Koderma and Bokaro, Simdega, Gumla, Sahibganj and Palamu. Three persons from other states -- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- also died at Rims. Among the six abandoned bodies, two were from Dhanbad and one each from Ranchi, Gumla, Koderma and West Bengal.

The body of 70-year-old Covid patient, who died on July 19 after he slipped in the bathroom at Rims, was kept in the mortuary for four days and after his family refused to cremate it before the district administration arranged for the last rites which at a Ranchi crematorium on Wednesday evening.

A Katras resident who died at Rims a week before was also cremated by the administration after his family members refused to take the body even though officials promised them of all the necessary arrangements.

The body of West Bengal migrant who was travelling to his home in Burdman district from Mumbai in a bus which met with an accident in Sikidri valley was preserved at the mortuary for around a week as his family members did not turn up. A team performed the last rites after they received the consent from family. The body of a patient from Gumla was also cremated after four days.

Talking to TOI, Ranchi SDM Lokesh Mishra said: “We have performed the last rites of all the bodies rejected by their families. The funerals were conducted as per norms prescribed by the Union health ministry on Covid death management. We have always tried to ensure that family members get the bodies of the deceased, but we conduct the last rites when they refuse.”

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