Goa: SDMs directed to ensure space for Covid funerals in every village

MARGAO: The current spike in Covid deaths has led to a situation where an increasing number of bodies are required to be cremated at the Hindu crematorium at Pajifond, Margao.
As reported by TOI in its Thursday edition, there are two pyres reserved for Covid funerals at the crematorium. As a result, scheduling the last rites poses a challenge to the funeral management team of the ESI-Covid hospital and exerts a strain on the system.
Taking cognisance of the situation, South Goa collector Ajit Roy has directed all subdivisional magistrates (SDMs) to ensure that a portion of the crematoriums in villages located in their respective jurisdictions is earmarked for Covid funerals.
The issue was discussed at the monthly meeting of SDMs chaired by Roy at the South Goa collectorate earlier this week.
Sources privy to the meeting said that the SDMs have been instructed to write to the local bodies managing the crematoriums to reserve a certain portion in their crematoriums for conducting Covid funerals by also earmarking a certain time slot for the purpose. The Mathagramastha Hindu Sabha that runs the Hindu crematorium at Pajifond, Margao, has allowed the district administration to use two pyres between 5pm and 6pm. Covid victims of all faiths are allowed to be cremated.
Sources said that the issue has also been raised with the North Goa collector as bodies of many Covid patients from North Goa, who died in the Goa Medical College (GMC), have to be brought to Margao for their last rites.
This situation arises when the kin of the deceased refuse to take possession of the bodies, sources said.
TOI in its August 19 edition had reported how fear of social ostracism has been driving the kin to disown their dead. “In some cases, the family of the deceased simply doesn’t turn up, or nonchalantly ask us to do the funeral ourselves,” a source associated with the team had told TOI.
Senior officials of the district administration expressed their disapproval over local bodies’ refusal to accept Covid bodies in their crematoriums, even over five months into the pandemic.
“The fear was understandable during the initial phases of the pandemic. However, it’s not acceptable now when adequate protocols are in place for conducting Covid funerals. Secondly, when the funerals of Covid-infected Christian and Muslim bodies are allowed in their village cemeteries and kabrastans, why do only Hindu crematoriums refuse to accept Covid bodies?” said an official.