Guntur residents oppose cremation of COVID19 dead body in residential areas

Amaravati: The residents at the Stambalagaruvu in Guntur city have opposed cremation of a deceased body of coronavirus patient.

There was a kind of tension situation prevailed. After great struggle, the revenue and municipal officials convinced the locals and completed the cremation procedure on Friday. The incident surfaced on Saturday.

Despite creating awareness among the people on the protocols being implemented while cremating the dead bodies, the residents still expressed their fears and urged the government authorities to find alternative places outside the cities.

In fact, all the dead bodies of the virus affected in the entire district will be cremated in Guntur city itself.

There are altogether 18 graveyards in the Guntur city, for all communities like Hindu, Muslim and Christians.

Incidentally, all of them are located in the residential areas only. One of the reasons behind this was occupation by poor people for house sites.

P Nageswara Rao, a resident of that area observed that the government must find a proper place for all such kind of activities in the outskirts of the city, instead of creating tension among the local residents.

Speaking to this correspondent on the issue, the revenue and municipal corporation officials informed that they have been following all the norms prescribed by the Government of India and the World Health Organization during the cremation of the Covidiant dead bodies.

PHD Ramakrishna, Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban informed that though the residents opposed it in the earlier, they allowed the authorities to complete the procedure. It is worth mentioning that this was the second such incident in that same graveyard.

When the first incident happened, the residents opposed burning of the dead body with the wood. After that the Guntur Municipal Corporation assured that the bodies would be burnt through gas at very high temperatures.

Since the residents did not get convinced of the arrangements made by the authorities for burning the bodies, they showed video footage. After seeing the videos, the residents got convinced.