It shows pandemic situation is more worst than our imagination
Ubaidullah Nasir
The unclaimed and unaccounted floating dead bodies in different rivers of UP mainly Ganga have shaken the nation. The photos appearing in media where dead bodies are being eaten by dogs ,jackals crows and vultures and other carnivorous birds and animals have become unbearable burden on the conscious of the nation. It shows that the death toll due to second surge of Covid-19 in which thousands of people died due to the lack of basic medical facility mainly oxygen is much more high than the figure appearing in media. The scenario is much more dangerous in villages where medical facility is in worst possible shape. The dead bodies floating in rivers are mainly from rural side .These are the dead bodies which are floating and came to public view, there will be thousands more dead bodies which were thrown in rivers with heavy stones or bricks tied to them, they have not floated but have been eaten away by fishes, tortoises etc. According to a reputed Hindi daily from Unnao to Ballia in a stretch of about 1100 km more than 2000 dead bodies have been found in Ganga. How many dead bodies have been thrown in other rivers mainly Yamuna, Ken, Betwa, Gomti etc. and water bodies including big ponds in different villages is not known . According to reports appearing on social media so many dead bodies have been found buried at the bank of river that emerged after dust storm. The Unnao district administration where such bodies have emerged at the bank of river Ganga has ordered further deepening of the graves to 6 feet because according to official sources these dead bodies have appeared from shallow graves.
Shamefully UP government is not accepting this harsh fact and as usual is in denial mood. Same is the case is with Bihar government where few dead bodies were found floating and Bihar government immediately came out with clarification that these dead bodies are actually from UP. This irresponsible response of both UP and Bihar government shows that they are only interested in passing the buck and in blame game instead of seriously realizing the gravity of the situation and doing course correction.
Taking notice of the situation the National Human rights Commission (NHRC) had issued notice to UP government. The notice has also been issued to central and Bihar governments. In a statement issued by NHRC the notices have been issued to the chief secretaries of UP and Bihar governments and union ministry of Jal shakti (Water Power) calling for action taken report. On the other hand a plea was filed in Supreme Court seeking constitution of a special investigating team (SIT) headed by a sitting or retired SC judge to supervise the probe into the death of several persons whose bodies were found floating in the river Ganga in Bihar and UP. The petition has sought direction to central, UP and Bihar authorities to conduct post mortem examination of these bodies so that the real cause of their death could be ascertained. The plea is filed by advocates Pradeep Yadav and Vishal Thakre. They said that the recovery of these decomposed corpses raises serious concern as the river is the source of water for many areas and if the bodies were infected by Covid-19 then it may become a health hazard specially in villages situated at the banks of Ganga. UP Congress Committee has also demanded judicial probe into the incident of dead bodies found floating in Ganga river. UPCC Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and legislature party leader Aradhna Mishra Mona in a joint virtual press conference said that the dead bodies found floating in Gaga clearly establishes the failure of Yogi government in not only providing proper health care to pandemic victims but even respectful last rites of dead persons which is their human and constitutional right.
These incidents clearly shows that the pandemic situation specially in UP and Bihar is much more grave serious and worrying than our imagination. UP government has lessen the testing so the real figure of infected persons do not come to public domain. If it is less in cities then none in villages where people are at the mercy of so called “Jhola Chhaap doctors” who have become messiah these days providing some basic medicines and medical advice only at symptoms. Government practically has up its hands and had left the public at the mercy of God .This gravity may be gauged from the fact that 14 government doctors have resigned saying they are unable to treat their patients due to lack of medical facilities.
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