People in Ganjam district are mostly taking the help of police and other Government personnel to perform the last rites of even their non-Covid-19 deceased family members as relatives and neighbours are staying away fearing infection of coronavirus.
Covid scare has gripped people in the district in view of ever-increasing positive cases, district officials admit. Ganjam has reported the State’s maximum 5,527 confirmed cases while its tally of positive patients has risen to 18,110.
And out of the total 97 Covid fatalities in the State on Monday, a whopping 59 were from Ganjam.
A 45-year-old man, Narendra Raul, died due to diarrhoea at Godarapalli village on Saturday last and his 75-year-old mother Jambhu died of shock after coming to know about his death.
Their family members had no option but to seek assistance from the local administration to perform their cremation as villagers, even close relatives and friends, did not come forward to help them, Hinjili Block Development Officer (BDO) PK Patra said.
Government personnel went to the village along with hearse vehicles of the Hinjili Municipality for the cremation of the bodies even though the two deceased were not corona patients.
In another incident, an elderly mother in Golapada village waited for 15 hours with the body of her 50-year-old widowed daughter, Sanjukta Pradhan, who died due to heart attack, before the Bhanjanagar police had to arrange for her cremation. Recently, her father, a Covid-19 patient, had been admitted to a hospital though the woman and her mother tested negative for the disease.
“People simply stayed away from her funeral out of fear of the virus,” a villager said.