COVID Affected Dead Bodies Found At The Shore Of River Ganges: PIL Filed In Patna High Court Seeks SIT Probe

The Petition has been filed by Anupam Prabhat Shrivastava and Sudeep Chandra through Advocate Vishal Kumar Singh stating that the finding of the bloated and decomposed dead bodies in the river Ganga has created chaos amongst the people and has made them vulnerable.

Averments in the plea

The plea states that these incidents in Bihar have triggered the fear in the people and that the people residing near to these banks of river Ganges, where floating dead bodies are found, are in terrible fear as it has been reported by the officials that these bloated and decomposed dead bodies are most likely of the corona patient who died.

"They are in fear of getting infected as most of them are totally dependent on the river Ganges for the drinking water. Besides this, the animals like street dogs and birds like crows can be found sitting and eating those dead bodies. These animals and birds wander around the villages and places situated along the sides of the river Ganges," adds the plea.

Further, stressing that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has anticipated the apprehension of subsisting of coronavirus in the body of the dead person, the PIL has stated that it becomes more terrifying when these bodies are dumped into the river Ganges and then being eaten by the dogs and crows.

Importantly, the plea avers that after dead bodies of suspected COVID patients were found in the Ganga River, the sale of river fish dipped in Bihar and Ganga water is not clean these days and dead bodies are floating in the river that's the people are not eating fishes bought from Ganga.

"The incident of floating bloated and decomposed dead bodies in the river Ganga have adversely affected the fisherman, fish sellers and the consumers as well," avers the PIL.

Averring that woods are not available for the last rites of the dead coronavirus patients and no official is there to check and control the situation of the crematoriums and graveyards, the plea submits that the kin of the dead coronavirus patients are being charged with a high amount of money for performing the last rites against the order of the government.

Prayers in the plea

• Direct the respondents to submit a detailed report so far as to how many dead bodies of the COVID positive patients have been cremated on the expense of the State.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to clean the contaminated water of river Ganges.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to clean every ghat (river banks) of the Ganges in Bihar and to sanitize them regularly.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to constitute the team of police officials of respective police stations to regularize the patrolling on the ghats (river banks) of Ganges.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to avail the pure and safe drinking water to the people living along the sides of the ghats of river Ganges so that they do not drink and use the contaminated river water helplessly.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to conduct Door to Door COVID-19 Corona Virus Test or to organize Medical Camps for conducting COVID-19 Corona Virus Test in such areas where the dead bodies are found along the ghats (river banks) of Ganges, so that the infection may not spread to others from such respective places.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take appropriate steps to vaccinate the people living adjacent to the ghats (river banks) of Ganges through Door-to-Door Vaccination Drive or by organizing the Medical Camps in such respective areas so that the vaccination may help in developing the antibodies in time within themselves.
• Direct the Respondents to immediately take strict actions against such persons or officials who charge any amount of money in the name of performing last rites at the crematoriums and the graveyards.