Karnal MC employees help families perform last rites

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 3

At a time when most families and relatives of Covid victims are afraid to touch their last remains, 15 employees of the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) are offering dignified cremation services to those who have succumbed to the deadly virus.

Three teams comprising five employees have been been performing duties at the Covid-dedicated crematorium at the Baldi bypass on rotation basis. One team works for 10 days in a month.

These employees start their work at 6 am from the collection of ashes, preparing pyres and it continues till late in the evening.

In the past 10 days, they have cremated 15-20 bodies daily. Most of these employees live separately during their duty days to protect their families from infection.

“During my duty days, I do not meet my family members and live in a separate room as a precautionary measure. I do not want any sort of infection to be carried to my family members,” said Karam Chand, an employee.

Sandeep Kumar, another employee, said for the past few days, they had been cremating 20-25 bodies daily. “Our team members work without any break in the scorching heat, so that family members who are coming from various parts of Delhi NCR, UP, Karnal and surrounding districts do not catch infection and do not have to wait for long,” said Sandeep.

“We assist two to three family members, wearing PPE kits, in cremation by following all rituals,” said another employee.

Describing these employees as silent warriors, Commissioner, KMC, Vikram Singh said all of them had been working with dedication. “We have assigned the work to different teams. Four vehicles have been designated to transport the bodies of Covid victims from private hospitals or Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) to the crematorium. These team members conduct their last rites with dignity and in accordance with rituals,” said the Commissioner.

He said the employees also helped the families in collecting the ashes. No money was charged for any work.