KOTTAYAM: Police on Monday booked BJP councillor T N Harikumar and 30 others for staging a protest and blocking the
cremation
of a Covid-19 victim at the
municipal crematorium
in
Kottayam
.
Police have charged a case under the
Epidemic Diseases Ordinance Act
and various other sections of the IPC.
After the district administration took a strong stand, the body of Ouseph George, 83, was cremated at the crematorium in the presence of a heavy police personnel by around 11.15pm on Sunday.
The protest and the ensuing confusion caused delay of around eight hours for the cremation. The residents of a colony located next to the crematorium, led by Harikumar, had staged the protest. They had also erected a fence at the crematorium entrance.
Meanwhile, the incident has developed in to a political issue with local MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan saying that he came to know about the cremation only through the media on Monday morning.
He also said that the tahsildar who was representing the government at the protest spot had assured the protesters in his presence that the cremation has been postponed. He alleged that the officer changed his decision later to protect the interest of someone.
Harikumar said that around 300 people from 52 families are residing in the vicinity of the crematorium.
“Their safety should have been considered. Instead of creating awareness earlier, the health department official tried to create awareness among the residents when the protest was going on,” he said.
CPM district secretary V N Vasavan slammed both the Congress and the BJP for playing dirty politics and trying to break the law and order situation using the residents.
Meanwhile, the whole incident received severe flak from social media. Many opined that the unfortunate incident had tarnished the image of the town, which is the first in the country to be declared fully literate.
Dr Jinesh P S of Info Clinic wrote on Facebook that one gets infected by the virus through droplet transmission when another person coughs or sneezes. Dead bodies never sneeze or cough, he wrote.
He also wrote that the hospitals take extra care in wrapping the bodies in plastic covers before handing over to ensure that no secretions from the body goes out. So there is no chance of anyone getting infected from the virus, he said.
“Despite knowing all this if someone tries to thwart the cremation of a Covid-19 victim, then we can only term the act as inhuman,” he said, adding that the safest method to ensure that an infectious disease does not spread after death is cremation.
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