News Analysis India

Tag: COVID cremations

  • COVID-19: HC asks Maharashtra to check rising air pollution due to increase in cremations

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government and the state pollution control board to address the issue of rising air pollution owing to increase in instances of cremations following deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    A bench of Justices Amjad Sayyad and G S Kulkarni was hearing a plea filed by six housing societies in Pune, highlighting the rise in air pollution due to the increase in the number of cremations at a nearby crematorium because of COVID-19 deaths.

    “We want the pollution control board to utilise its expertise and what can be the best possible technology to prevent smoke. The PCB will have to devise a mechanism. We are still using traditional methods,” the HC said.

    It said the authorities must use scientific devices at crematoriums to tackle the issue of pollution.

    Advocate Sharmila Deshmukh, who appeared for the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, told the HC that MPCB’s chairperson could nominate a technical expert to help devise ways to arrest the toxic emissions from crematoriums.

    The court directed the state government and the MPCB to address the bench on the issue on June 2.

    The court was told that following a previous hearing, where the HC was informed of lapses on part of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) about maintaining records on the availability of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, a person on the help desk was suspended.

    Earlier this month, the civic body claimed in the HC that surplus ICU and ventilator beds were available in Pune.

    A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni had then asked advocate Rajesh Inamdar, the counsel for one of the petitioners out of a bunch of PILs seeking various reliefs, to call on the PMC’s helpline number and put it on speaker.

    Inamdar then made two calls asking for a ventilator bed and was told there were no beds available.

    Inamdar told the HC on Thursday that the woman, who had answered the call, was subsequently suspended.

    However, advocate Abhijit Kulkarni, who appeared for the PMC, told the HC he had spoken to the woman concerned.

    The civic body had sought an explanation from her and she said that she was flustered at that time and had not been able to provide the correct information to the caller.

    “She will be trained properly to handle calls. She has been suspended for 10 to 15 days, but I will speak to the authorities to ensure she is not punished unnecessarily,” Kulkarni said.

    The high court said the woman must be reinstated.

    “What is this? Is this true? Please ensure she is back on the job,” the HC told Kulkarni.

    “We do not want anyone to suffer because of our intervention in any matter,” it said.

    While hearing another plea related to the coronavirus pandemic, the same bench directed the Union government to file an affidavit on the approvals granted by the Centre on the prescription and use of the drug Ivermectin for treating COVID-19 infections.

    It was hearing a PIL which claimed that while doctors in the country had been prescribing Ivermectin, the drug did not have the approval of international regulatory authorities.

    The HC directed the Union government to file its affidavit by June 9.

  • Protect rights of the dead: Plea in SC raises overcharging for cremations, ambulance services 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court raising the issue of alleged overcharging for cremations and ambulance services during the COVID-19 pandemic and seeking a direction to the Centre to consider formulating a policy to protect the rights of the dead.

    Referring to reports about several bodies found floating in the river Ganga, the plea said the Centre should be directed to advise all states and Union Territories (UTs) to frame guidelines prescribing rates for cremation or burial of those who have died due to the deadly virus and also for ambulance services along with penal actions for non-compliance at the earliest.

    “It is deeply depressing to see people putting bodies of their beloved ones in rivers like Ganga due to lack of money,” said the plea, filed by NGO Distress Management Collective through advocate Jose Abraham.

    “It is primarily due to exorbitant amounts asked for cremation and ambulance services that scores of people decided to put the bodies of their beloved in the river Ganga,” it claimed.

    It said that the National Human Rights Commission issued an advisory recently for upholding the dignity and protecting the rights of the dead.

    The plea alleged that no cogent action has been taken by the authority to tackle the issue of “undue profiteering by unscrupulous caretakers at crematoriums because of which many are unable to cremate or bury their beloved.”

    It referred to earlier verdicts of the apex court which had said that the dignity of the dead must be maintained and respected.

    “There is a dire need to enact a specific legislation that protects the rights of the dead, and there is also a need for issuance of guidelines to all states and UTs to prescribe rates for cremations and ambulance services along with penal actions for non-compliance at the earliest,” it said.

    It said the petitioner had earlier approached the Delhi High Court raising the issues of overcharging for cremations and ambulance services in the national capital.

    It said the high court had on May 6 given liberty to the petitioner to approach appropriate representation to the municipal corporations concerned and the civic bodies were asked to decide it in accordance with the law.

    The petitioner NGO alleged that it had submitted a representation to all the municipal corporations on May 11 but none of them have even acknowledged its receipt so far.

    The plea said the petitioner had also sent a representation to the Centre with a request to take urgent steps to enact a law that ensures the dignity of the dead along with guidelines to the states and UTs to control exorbitant charges for cremation and ambulance services.

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