In Karnal, unclaimed ashes await immersion

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 30

The ashes of 12 Covid victims have been lying unclaimed in a room at the Baldi bypass crematorium, a Covid dedicated cremation ground, and waiting to be immersed in the Ganga or other holy rivers for the past fortnight.

The ashes, tied in bags, and have been hung on a window of the room.

The volunteers, who are assisting employees of the Karnal Municipal Corporation (MC) in collecting the ashes after cremation, say some families do not collect the ashes as they are afraid of getting infected with the virus, while family members of a couple of victims took a small quantity of the ashes as a token for immersion. These ashes are of victims from Delhi, UP, Bihar, and four to five districts of Haryana. Now, the volunteers will immerse the ashes in the Ganga next Sunday.

In May, around 400 Covid victims had been cremated here at this cremation ground. Around 25-27 bodies had been cremated in a day when the second wave of Covid was at its peak.

Volunteers say during cremation, relatives of several Covid victims had refused to even lit the pyre due to fear of being infected with the virus, but employees had cremated these with all Hindu rituals. “After the cremation, instead of taking the ashes with them to Delhi, UP and Bihar, the family members of the most of the victims had given consent to us for immersing the ashes into the Ganga,” said Brij Gupta, a social activist and husband of Karnal mayor Renu Bala Gupta.

“We have decided to immerse the ashes in the Ganga on Sunday,” said Gupta.

Ramesh Midha, another volunteer, said residents were helping in the cremation of the Covid victims by providing them firewood, ghee and other necessary requirements.

Ish Gulati, councillor, said they had the record of all victims and their ashes would be immersed by following Hindu rituals.

Vikram Singh, MC Commissioner , said the cremation of all victims was done by employees of the corporation. Most of the family members have taken the ashes of their relatives. Still, ashes of 12 victims had been kept in the room.