Nellore civic staff throw Covid bodies in Penna, trigger uproar

Nellore/Amaravati: In yet another case of inhuman disposal of Covid-19 patients in the state, Nellore Municipal Corporation here dumped the bodies in a pit using an earthmover.

A video, which went viral over social media, shows municipal workers taking out bodies from an ambulance and throwing them on the front portion of a JCB. The bodies were then dumped into a pit in Penna river.

With the incident caught on camera causing a public outrage, district collector M V Sheshagiri Babu on Friday ordered a probe. Nellore revenue divisional officer (RDO) Hussian Saheb has been appointed as the special officer to conduct the inquiry.

"A video of the burial of those who died of Covid-19 in Nellore district is going viral. The district collector has ordered an inquiry. As Nellore RDO and sub-divisional magistrate, I have been appointed as the investigation officer. I am conducting an inquiry and after completion of the same will submit my report to the collector," Hussain Saheb said.

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu tweeted on Friday that he was pained to see bodies of Covid-19 victims in Nellore being disrespectfully thrown into a single pit using an earthmover. "This is happening time & again. Y S Jagan government must offer an apology to the grieving families who wished for a respectful departure for their loved ones," the TDP chief said.

This is the third such incident in the state in a span of two weeks. On July 6, municipal authorities in Tirupati used a excavator to lift the body of a Covid victim from an ambulance and dump it into a pit.

Health workers pushed the body onto the excavator, which carried it to a pit and dumped the body in it. The municipal authorities defended the move saying the body weighed nearly 180 kg.

Tirupati Municipal Commissioner P S Girisha said they had to bury the body as the attempt by the municipal staff to cremate it had failed.

In a similar incident in Palasa town of Srikakulam district on June 26, body of a Covid victim was shifted from his house to the cremation ground on a JCB excavator. In another incident in the same district, Covid victim's body was transported in a tractor.

Taking a serious note of the incidents, the government has suspended six officials.