Gujarat: Crematoriums in Bopal, Ambli turning bodies away

AHMEDABAD: An advocate practising in the Gujarat high court, Kaivan Patel, had to bring his relative’s body to the Thaltej crematorium from Bopal after a crematorium in Bopal refused to allow her cremation.
When Patel and his family members inquired at the Ambli village crematorium, they were forwarded a message doing the rounds on social media. The message was in the name of one Khodiyar Yuvak Mandal and was addressed to residents of Ambli village telling them that in this Covid-19 situation, nobody except a resident of Ambli village will be allowed cremation in the village crematorium. It also asked Ambli villagers to communicate this to residents of housing societies around the village, and that no cremation of a person who had died of Covid-19 would be permitted.
This message was enough for Patel to ask the hearse van driver to take the body to Thaltej crematorium, where he had to wait in a queue to cremate the 90-year-old grandmother of his wife. “She died a natural death and there was nobody from the family who could help because most of the members are quarantined. We inquired with Bopal crematorium but got a refusal. And then we received such messages from Ambli,” the lawyer said and added that he decided to take up the issue in the high court.
DySP Ahmedabad rural, K T Kamaria, said police have not yet received any complaint in this regard. But he said, “Earlier too when there was no Covid-19 pandemic, these villagers did not allow others to cremate bodies at their crematoriums.”
Officials at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) said though these areas now fall under the civic body’s jurisdiction, operation and management of the crematoriums at Bopal and Ambli have not been taken over yet.