Crowding at Delhi’s cremation grounds: East MCD will run facility 24×7, North asks hospitals to stagger launch of our bodies

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation will run the Karkardooma cremation floor for twenty-four hours from Monday onwards due to a rise within the variety of Covid deaths, whereas the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has requested hospitals to ship our bodies in a staggered method to scale back ready time on the crematorium.
“We were getting reports about people having to wait the entire night to get bodies of Covid victims cremated, as the timings are 8 am to 9 pm. To make sure people do not have to wait, we will in all likelihood be running the crematorium 24×7,” stated Dr Ajay Handa, a medical well being official from the EDMC.
The Jawala Nagar cremation floor with 17 pyres has additionally been transformed right into a devoted Covid cremation web site, just like the Karkardooma floor with 10 pyres.
The variety of our bodies arriving on the Karkardooma crematorium has elevated since April 1. From January 1 until the top of March this 12 months, 9 our bodies had been cremated right here as per Covid protocol, whereas this month the quantity has already touched 20.

At the Seemapuri burial floor beneath EDMC, 134 our bodies had been cremated as per Covid protocol since April 1, as in comparison with 35 from January 1 to March-end this 12 months. Overall, since April 1, the crematoriums at Karkardooma, Ghazipur, and the burial grounds of Seemapuri, Shastri Park and Mayur Vihar Phase 3 noticed the final websites of 207 our bodies as per Covid protocol, as in comparison with 67 from January 1-March 31. Last 12 months, from April 1 to December 12, this quantity stood at 1,891.
Various hospitals beneath the East and North MCDs have been directed to ship our bodies solely to specified crematoriums/burial grounds, as per a directive issued on Saturday by the NDMC.

A senior official from the civic physique stated, “We have created a system wherein the hospitals have been asked to send the bodies of Covid patients in a staggered manner to specified grounds. This is to reduce waiting time.”
The variety of our bodies obtained at North MCD’s grounds have additionally elevated compared to the identical interval final 12 months — April 1 to April 15. Last 12 months, there have been 12 our bodies whose final rites had been carried out as per Covid protocol, whereas this 12 months the quantity stands at 224.

At the eight grounds beneath the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), there is no such thing as a such subject of crowding, stated councillor Narendra Chawla. “The only issue is that because these are Covid patients, only the dedicated staff has to do the various rituals, which was earlier being done by the families. Otherwise, we have space,” he stated. South MCD has cremation grounds at Punjabi Bagh, Hastsal, Subhash Nagar, Lodhi Road, Sarai Kale Khan, Dwarka Sector 24, and Lal Kuan, and a burial floor at ITO.