Mangaluru city Corporation crematorium to be funeral site for COVID-19 victims
Mangaluru: In the wake of the fears among local people regarding the cremation of coronavirus victims, an understanding has been reached with all stakeholders that the Mangaluru city corporation's crematorium here will be the official funeral site for such cases in future.
Mangaluru South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath, who had to face stinging criticism on social media for his alleged support to local people who stopped the cremation of a COVID- 19 victim at Pachanady near here on Thursday, took an active role in finding the solution.
The body of the victim, a woman, had to be taken from Pachanady to Kaikunje during the night, delaying the funeral by hours.
Kamath visited Boloor on Saturday and sought to convince the people that cremating the bodies of coronavirus victims would not endanger their lives in any way as the guidelines of WHO and union health ministry are being strictly followed.
The crematorium at Boloor is run by the MCC and has an electric furnace and firewood pyres.
Kamath said a tacit understanding that final rites of COVID-19 patients in Dakshina Kannada will be performed at Boloor has been reached at a meeting with all stakeholders.
Cremating bodies in such a controlled environment is deemed safe as per guidelines, he said. City Mayor Diwakar, local corporator Jagadish Shetty and MCC assistant commissioner Madan Mohan took part in the meeting.
The decision was conveyed to the DK district administration.
The district administration has also launched a campaign on dead body management protocol to convince the people to ignore misinformation being spread regarding the cremation of coronavirus victims.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
