90 bodies in one day, funerals at parking lot of Gurgaon crematorium

Gurgaon: Officially, there were seven

Covid deaths

in Gurgaon on Monday. But at the Madanpuri cremation ground, which has been designated for Covid deaths, there were so many bodies that cremations spilled over to the

parking lot

.

Around 50 cremations had been completed till 8pm, while 40 more were in queue at the time of filing of this report. A majority of these were Covid patients in home isolation. Officials said there were non-Covid deaths too.

“Due to the sudden rush of bodies on Monday, we faced a shortage of space. We have space to cremate only 30 bodies at any given time. We have been forced to set up 10 platforms in the parking area,” said a caretaker at this

crematorium

.

Due to a shortage of

ambulances

to carry the bodies, families brought their loved ones for last rites in their cars.

“My father, a Covid patient, died this morning. We brought him to Madanpuri around 3pm, but had to wait for five hours to perform the final rites,” said Bhavesh Kumar.

No social distancing was possible at the crematorium, which is located in a residential area, with around 500 people present there.

“My younger brother passed away. He was not a Covid patient, but we had to wait for five hours to cremate him. There were so many people waiting with no social distancing at all. The authorities need to make proper arrangements,” said Jitender Kumar, a local resident.

Deputy commissioner Yash Garg told TOI he will ask MCG to increase the number of Covid-designated crematoriums.

“I will ask the MCG commissioner to look into this matter and also increase the number of crematorium sites for Covid patients,” he said.


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