Telangana: NGOs, families demand government directive on storing bodies

HYDERABAD: With no facilities to store mortal remains of patients who succumbed to Covid-19, families of victims and non-governmental organisations (NGO) helping people cremate their loved ones, demanded the state government to come up with guidelines to preserve dead bodies overnight.
The groups said that as mortal remains of Covid-19 patients are not being handed over to families to take home, many are struggling to make arrangements to store the dead body overnight and are unable to bear the cost of ambulance or freezer box charges.Going for night cremation is also not an option for families as Hindu crematoriums are closed by 7pm.
“We tried to get my brother-in-law cremated at night but no crematorium was available. We had no option except to pay thousands of rupees and store the body,” said a person, whose 45-year-old relative succumbed to Covid-19 about a week ago. The same was the case with the family of a school teacher who died on Saturday. While no one had objection in cremating the deceased at night, they were forced to shell out Rs 30,000 to store the body overnight.
The NGOs have appealed to the state government to come with a solution to the problem as many are forced to pay anywhere around Rs 16,000 to Rs 30,000 to store mortal remains of Covid-19 body overnight in a freezer box inside the ambulance.
“In the last one week, I received at least ten calls from families asking about cremation and where to store dead body overnight. How difficult is it for the state to provide a space to keep these bodies or allow night cremations?” asked Sai Teja from the Feed the Needy NGO, adding that the state should come up with guidelines on how to store mortal remains of Covid-19 patients overnight and allow night cremations.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials, meanwhile, said that crematoriums have all facilities to dispose Covid-19 bodies. “Crematoriums are closed during the night as Hindus don’t prefer to cremate after sunset,” said V Mamatha, Zonal Commissioner (Kukatpally).