MP: As lockdown hits funerary rites, urns pile up in Morena

Morena (MP), Apr 12 () Urns are piling up in acrematorium in COVID-19 hit Morena town in Madhya Pradesh as alockdown in place to stall the outbreak has meant peoplecannot carry out funerary rituals and immerse the ashes innearby rivers.

Ironically, the coronavirus transmission in the twobegan after a man, who returned from Dubai and later testedpositive, and his wife organised a "mrityu bhoj" for severalhundred people in the vicinity on March 20, leading to ten ofthe attendees catching the infection over the next few days.

"The kin of at least 20 people who have died due tovarious reasons since the lockdown was announced have not beenable to carry out post-cremation rituals. Some 10 urnscontaining the ashes of the deceased are kept in our lockers,"Morena Badokhar crematorium managing committee functionarySuresh Gupta told .

"Since the borders of the district are sealed due tothe lockdown, people are unable to take the urns to sacredrivers close by to immerse the ashes. People mostly used to gothe Ganga flowing past Seron in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh,"he said.

Local resident Deepak Sharma said his mother passedaway on March 27 but he was turned away by priests at Serondespite getting permission from authorities to make thejourney during lockdown.

"The priests were afraid of legal repercussions. Ireturned with the urn containing my mother's ashes and havekept it in the locker at Badokhar crematorium," Sharma said.

The authorities have banned all kinds of functions aspart of social distancing norms to fight the virus outbreak.

Morena has been under curfew since April 2 when theDubai returnee and his wife tested positive for coronavirus. COR ADUBNM BNM