[Dumping of Covid19 Bodies In Rivers] Plea Before Supreme Court Seeks Three Tier Committee To Look After Disposal Of Dead Bodies With Dignity

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions for constitution of a three-tier committee at Centre, state and Panchayat level to look after disposal of bodies with dignity. The plea has also urged the court to declare Ganga river bed an ecologically sensitive area, to be protected and preserved.

The plea filed by Advocate Vineet Jindal has impleaded the Centre, National Commission For Clean Ganga, State of UP, Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, State of Bihar and Bihar State Pollution Control Board as respondents.

Further directions have been sought to remove dead bodies and fill up digging made so far and restore ecology of river beds. According to petitioner, a direction needs to be issued that any environmental hazardous element or work of dumping of corpus in river beds will permanently destroy ecology and groundwater recharge ability of rivers and will be violative of public trust doctrine and precautionary principle under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioner has filed the plea, being aggrieved by manner in which dead bodies of Covid19 infected persons are being disposed by concerned authorities of States, near banks of different rivers leading to devastating effect on drinking water for people residing on river banks and apprehension of transmission through water.

The petition has also sought directions for door to door Covid test or medical camps for tests in areas where dead bodies have been found along river banks of Ganges and other rivers, so infection may not spread to others.

The petitioner has sought directions for vaccination of people living adjacent to the ghats of Ganges through door to door vaccination or Medical camps, to help develop antibodies in time.

Further strict action has been sought against those persons or officials who charge amount of money in name of performing last rites at crematoriums and graveyards.

The plea has been filed taking note of several reported incidents of dumping of Covid19 bodies in pits, burial on banks of river Ganga in UP districts, and floating in the rivers, and half burnt and decomposed dead bodies.

According to the plea, medical waste generation has increased globally since outbreak of Covid-19 which is a great threat to public health and environment. Further, the dumping of Covid bodies is a major threat to environment as mixing up of these wastes increases risk of disease transmission, through water and street animals.

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