With increasing Covid deaths, Delhi’s crematoriums, graveyards under enormous strain
As Covid death mounts, the crematorium and burial grounds in the national capital face a grim situation. The number of cremations at Delhi’s biggest crematorium Nigambodh Ghat has gone up by at least 30 percent.
As Covid death mounts, the crematorium and burial grounds in the national capital face a grim situation. The number of cremations at Delhi’s biggest crematorium Nigambodh Ghat has gone up by at least 30 percent.
Delhi on Wednesday reported over 104 Covid-19 related deaths, the highest since November 2020. The second wave of Covid has hit hard the city with more than 10,000 cases in a single day. It recorded more than 17,000 new cases, a record high since the outbreak of the pandemic in the last 24 hours.
According to one of the relatives of the Covid-19 patient who lost his life on Tuesday night, at the Nigambodh Ghat even after five hours, the funeral had not been performed due to lack of space at the cremation facility. We arrived here at 8:30 am. Our turn has not come yet. The situation is very bad. Two-three dead bodies are being brought in each ambulance, said Gautam, 27.
Delhi’s biggest graveyard near ITO has employed a JCB excavator to constantly dig up for more graves but it is also fast running out of space. From one or two bodies a day, it is now 17 bodies daily. In the last five days, the condition has deteriorated. We only have space for 90 more. If situation continues like this, then in the next 10 days, we will run out of space, said Mohammad Shamim, the caretaker of the graveyard.
Mashqoor Rashid, who oversees burials of coronavirus victims, makes a grim projection as he one after another, the bodies get buried at the Qabristan Ahle Islam near ITO. At this rate, we will run short of land in a month. Since last week, on average 10-15 bodies of Covid victims are being buried daily here. Yesterday, 18 burials were performed, he said.
The general secretary of Badi Panchayat Vaishya Beese Agarwal organisation, Suman Gupta, who manages the city’s main crematorium at the Nigambodh Ghat, said, Usually, around 50-60 cremations are performed here daily. The number has gone up to over 80 now.
North Delhi mayor Jai Prakash, in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, sought help for arranging land for burials. A municipal official, meanwhile, has said that the burial of Covid-19 victims requires especially dug-up graves which are being prepared through backhoe loaders as the number of deaths is rising and the digging manually would take more time and manpower.
However, an official from the Delhi Waqf Board, which runs several graveyards in the city, has been quoted saying that there was no scarcity of land for burials so far. We have enough land for burials, he said.
Meanwhile, India’s Covid-19 caseload surged to 1,40,74,564 with 2,00,739 new infections, while the recoveries have surged to 1,24,29,564, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
On Camera: Delhi man stabs girl multiple times in Mukherjee Nagar, arrested
The incident was captured on CCTV and has been shared widely on the internet.
Published
8 months ago
on
March 24, 2024
By
In a shocking incident, a man from Delhi was arrested on Sunday for stabbing a girl multiple times with a knife in the Mukherjee Nagar area in broad daylight. The incident was captured on CCTV and has been shared widely on the internet.
According to reports, the incident took place on March 22. The passers-by intervened and tried to stop and catch the accused. Although, the girl did not suffer grievous injuries in this attack and is out of danger.
The police have identified the accused as Aman. In the CCTV footage, the 22-year-old could be seen stabbing the girl with the knife several times.
It has been known that students in Mukherjee Nagar used to make fun of the accused, Aman, and call him mentally ill as he used to keep roaming in the area, without doing anything.
The woman he targeted would visit Mukherjee Nagar to study in a library. In the surveillance video, the man can be observed sprinting towards the woman, forcefully knocking her down, and subsequently striking her several times.
The man who is under arrest told the police that she ridiculed him, causing him to take a knife from a nearby vegetable vendor and launch an attack on her in a fit of rage.
Last year in April, another incident was reported from Northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar where a man killed his live-in partner and dumped her body 12 lm away from a house with the help of his sister.
Police, later, found the body of Rohina Naz alias Mahi, a resident of Uttarakhand’s Mirajpur, lying near Krishna Public School. The police arrested the sister of the accused in this case.
According to the police, the accused, identified as Vineet, was on the run while his sister Parul was arrested for helping him conspire the murder and hide the body.
The 25-year-old Mahi and Vineet eloped four years ago the date of the crime and were living together in Delhi. Deputy Commissioner of Police Joy Tirkey had said that Mahi was pressuring him for marriage and because of this, the couple used to fight frequently.
Delhi metro services will not be available till 2:30 pm on all Lines of the Delhi Metro including Rapid Metro/Airport Express Line.
Published
8 months ago
on
March 22, 2024
By
Delhi Metro services will begin at 2:30 pm from terminal stations on all lines on the occasion of Holi, March 25, and will continue normally thereafter.
The Delhi Metro on X, said that the metro train services to start at 2:30 pm on the day of the Holi festival, March 25 (Monday), adding that it said metro services will not be available till 2:30 pm on all Lines of the Delhi Metro including Rapid Metro/Airport Express Line.
Earlier on March 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of two additional corridors of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday. The cost of these 2 corridors of the Delhi Metro Phase 4 project is Rs 8,399 crore. These 2 lines will be 20.762 km long. The construction of these projects is slated for completion by March 2026.
During the press release, the government said that the Inderlok- Indraprastha corridor will be an extension of the Green Line and will provide interchange with the Blue, Violet, Magenta and Airport Line, Yellow and Red lines, while the Lajpat Nagar- Saket G Block corridor will connect Violet, Pink, Magenta and Silver lines.
Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar- Saket G Block corridor will be entirely elevated and have 8 stations, as per the reports. The Inderlok- Indraprastha corridor will have 10 stations. The Prime Minister also interacted with beneficiaries of the PM SVANidhi scheme. He distributed loans under the scheme to 1 lakh street vendors (SVs) including 5000 SVs from Delhi.
According to official records, till now up to Rs 82 lakh loans which amount to Rs 10, 978 crore have been disbursed to more than 62 lakh street vendors all over India. Speaking to the media at the event earlier, the Prime Minister said that the program PM SVANidhi Mahotsav was dedicated to those who are always around us and without whom one cannot imagine our lives.
7 BJP MLAs suspended from Delhi Assembly’s Budget session for interrupting LG’s address
Pandey said that such behaviour by the BJP MLAs amounted to lowering the dignity of the House.
Published
9 months ago
on
February 16, 2024
By
Seven out of eight Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) were suspended on Friday for the remainder of the Budget session of the Delhi Assembly for allegedly interrupting Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena’s address.
On Thursday, they were marshalled out of the House for their unruly behaviour. According to the reports, the seven BJP MLAs were interrupting Governor Saxena during his address to the House as they sought to attack the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led-AAP government.
Taking cognisance of the matter, the Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel sent the matter of disruption to the Privileges Committee.
On the second day of the session, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Dilip Kumar Pandey and the party convenor Kejriwal whip in the Assembly. Pandey pointed out the disruption made by the BJP MLAs during the LG’s speech, he said MLAs have disrupted Saxena’s address marking the opening of the budget session at least eight times. He further said that such behaviour by the BJP MLAs amounted to lowering the dignity of the House.
AAP MLA Pandey, later moved a proposal that the matter be referred to the Delhi Assembly Privileges Committee, demanding the suspension of the seven BJP MLAs from the proceedings of the House, until the panel decides on the matter. Through a voice vote, the proposal was passed.
Despite several warnings from the Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, BJP Vijender Gupta interrupted Saxena while he was citing the AAP’s achievements. Following this, the Speaker asked the House marshals to take Gupta out.
Later, when LG Saxena began his address, other leaders from the BJP party continued disrupting him as Saxena cited several Kejriwal government’s achievements.
After all this, the BJP MLAs defied the Goel and refrained from interrupting the Saxena’s address, to which the Speaker had to ask the marshals to take them out of the House too.
The House suspended seven BJP MLAs out of eight, the Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was not suspended, however, he walked out with other suspended BJP leaders in protest against the decision of the House to suspend its MLAs.
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