As Bihar and Uttar Pradesh hold a close watch on river Ganga to trace floating dead bodies that have triggered panic in the bordering states more than the previous handful of days, Congress basic secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today known as for a judicial inquiry into such incidents. Priyanka claimed that official death figures have been getting grossly below-reported by each states. “Bodies are floating in the Ganga in Ballia and Ghazipur. Reports are coming in of mass burials on the banks of the river in Unnao. Official numbers from cities like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Kanpur appear to be grossly under-reported,” she mentioned.
Priyanka Gandhi also alleged that whilst the government is busy in image-creating, men and women are suffering unimaginably. “What is happening in Uttar Pradesh is inhuman and criminal. The government is busy image building while people are suffering unimaginably. There must be an immediate judicial enquiry headed by a high court judge into these events,” she mentioned.
https://twitter.com/priyankagandhi/status/1392761666526273537
Notably, more than one hundred bodies have been recovered from the Ganga river in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, most of them badly decomposed. While most of the bodies have been located from Buxar in Bihar and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, some bodies have been recovered today close to Patna.
“Several bodies including a body of a child have been found floating in the river Ganga. We are keeping a check to ensure that bodies are not dumped in the river in our district,” mentioned Dr. Chandrashekhar Singh, District Magistrate, Patna.
Buxar DM Aman Samir had mentioned that patrolling to be completed on river Ganga from Buxar’s Chausa to Nainijor and police officers to be stationed 24 hours at cremation web-sites on the river banks to avert any dumping of bodies in Ganga. On May 10, about 12 corpses have been fished out from Ganga in Buxar.
Some more bodies have been located buried in the sand in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.
The incidents have triggered panic amongst residents of these regions as they worry the bodies may well be of COVID-19 victims. The contamination of Ganga water in view of the discoveries has added to the worries of the residents of towns on thye banks of the holy river.