51 Andhra NGOs honoured with ‘Warriors of Humanity’ for helping during Covid-19 pandemic

VIJAYAWADA: Director General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang felicitated 51 civil society groups across the state for helping people during the Covid-19 pandemic and conducting last rites of unclaimed bodies.

The DGP, along with the SPs of 13 districts and two commissioners, conducted a video conference on Friday and recognised the selfless service rendered voluntarily by citizens’ groups during the tough times. The top cop felicitated 51 groups virtually and awarded them ‘Manavathva Dheeras’ ( Warriors of Humanity) tag. 

“The NGOs are unsung heroes and the work they are doing is exemplary,” Sawang said.

According to sources, the 51 civil society groups helped in conduct of the last rites of 4,187 unclaimed bodies till date and were involved in other social welfare activities such as food distribution.

Three groups — Amma Charitable Trust, Guntur Covid Fighters Team and Rudra Charitable Trust — have performed the last rites of 1,820 people in Guntur district. In Krishna district, two groups —SD Khaja and Friend’s Circle (Machilipatnam) and Vijayawada Helping Hands Group — have cremated 117 bodies.

Similarly, two groups in Srikakulam performed the last rites of 153 people, Vizianagaram Youth Facebook group (20), two groups in Visakhapatnam (120 each), six groups in East Godavari (737), three groups in Prakasam (88) and three associations in Nellore gave fitting farewell to 355 people. Sadguru Datta Krupalayam in Kurnool aided in conducting last rites of 502 victims and several individual groups performed the last rites of 136 in Kadapa district and 138 in Anantapur.

​In Tirupati, Muslim United Covid-19 JAC cremated 550 bodies and personnel of King Star Ambulance and Freezer Service in Chittoor helped in performing last rites of 60 COVID-19 victims.