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India Covid crisis: Panchkula cremation ground turns away 15 families

Panchkula - There were 29 deaths in the district on Thursday and 15 of the bodies were awaiting disposal outside the cremation ground.

Adding to the grim miseries of unfortunate folk, who had to queue outside hospitals seeking admission for their ailing dear ones, some in Panchkula are now being turned away along with the bodies that they have brought from the only cremation ground in the satellite city of Chandigarh.

All 14 funeral pyres at the cremation ground in the city in Haryana have been burning ferociously as bodies of Covid-19 victims are brought by their relatives.

According to the Indian Express, there were 29 deaths in the district on Thursday and 15 of the bodies were awaiting disposal outside the cremation ground.

“We do not have any space left,” a caretaker at the ground told the paper’s correspondent. “All pyres are burning. They will cool down by tomorrow, we will then re-start cremating the rest.”

Thursday was especially bad as the number of victims who succumbed to the devastating disease soared in Panchkula. But the cremation ground, which in normal times hardly sees any pyres, was singed in flames, even as grieving family members waited outside for their turn to dispose of the bodies of their dear ones.

The district administration is now setting up another cremation ground in the city. According to the caretaker, wooden logs have been sent to the ground and on Friday five bodies will be burnt at the new crematorium.

Employees at the crematorium spoke of the growing shortage of pyres and the need to start the LPG chamber, which has not been used over the past 10 months. And sadly, employees at the crematorium are turning away bodies of those who died due to non-Covid causes to crematoriums elsewhere in the state.