Mehsana (Guj), Dec 31: A video has gone viral showing a garbage collection van of a municipality in Gujarat's Mehsana district transporting a body to a local hospital for post-mortem.
After people raised objections, officials of the Kadi Municipality said the decision to send a garbage van to transport the body was taken by lower rank employees because the municipality does not have any mortuary van at present.
The incident occurred on December 29 after the body was recovered from a canal outside the city limits and since it was highly decomposed, nobody was ready to take it to the hospital, they said.
In the brief video shot at night by a person travelling in another vehicle, a garbage collection van of Kadi Municipality can be seen transporting the body from a place near Narmada canal to the Community Health Centre near Kadi town.
Chief Officer of Kadi Municipality, Sandip Patel, said the incident took place on Sunday night outside the limits of the civic body.
"Police recovered a decomposed dead body from Narmada canal passing from a village situated outside the limits of our civic body on December 29. When police officials asked our staff to send a mortuary van to help them in sending the body till CHC for post mortem, our staff told police that the van has recently been scrapped due to RTO rules," he said.
"But since the body was badly decomposed, no other vehicle owner expressed willingness to do the work. Thus, after repeated requests from the police to arrange any other vehicle to do the task, our lower rank staff, without asking senior officials, sent a garbage van. The van was totally empty and did not have any garbage in it," the officer said.
The municipality has already started the process to buy a new mortuary van, he said.
"यही है गुजरात मॉडल"
— Gandhinagar Congress Sevadal (@SevadalGN) December 31, 2024
कड़ी नगरपालिका में कचरा गाड़ी बनी शववाहिनी।
कड़ी के बावलू पुलिस स्टेशन क्षेत्र में नर्मदा नहर से मिला शव, पोस्टमॉर्टम के लिए कचरा गाड़ी में ले जाया गया।
तीन दशकों से सत्ता में रहने वाली सरकार के बाद भी अगर एक मृतक के लिए कचरा गाड़ी का उपयोग किया जाता है pic.twitter.com/rojV8U4qqb
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Bhopal: Kunwar Vijay Shah, a minister in the Mohan Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh government, has stirred controversy with a provocative statement made during a public event. Without naming Indian Army officer Colonel Sofia Qureshi, the minister made remarks that have drawn criticism for being communal and derogatory in tone.
Addressing a gathering, Vijay Shah claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a symbolic step to avenge the mistreatment of Indian women by sending "a sister from their community" to confront those responsible. His reference, believed to be directed towards Colonel Sofia Qureshi, suggested that the officer was sent on a military aircraft to retaliate against Pakistan-based terrorists for previous attacks and alleged atrocities.
“The Pakistanis had stripped people from our country. The terrorists said ‘tell Modi we have killed Hindus and stripped them’. That’s why PM Modi sent their sister in an army plane to teach them a lesson,” Shah said in his speech.
He further added, “Those who had destroyed the vermilion of our sisters, we sent their own sister to beat them. Modi could not remove thier clothes, so he sent their sister – from their caste and community – to take revenge and strip them.”
The minister also praised the Prime Minister’s leadership, saying only someone with a "56-inch chest" could take such decisions. “Modi said he would reduce them to dust. The terrorists were sitting in their homes and they were beaten. We are proud that Narendra Modi is our Prime Minister and that we are safe under his leadership,” Shah said.
The remarks have sparked outrage on social media, with many calling them insensitive, communal, and disrespectful to the armed forces. Critics have pointed out that using the identity of a decorated army officer to make political or communal statements is inappropriate and undermines the professionalism of India’s defence forces.
There has been no official response from Colonel Sofia Qureshi or the Indian Army regarding the remarks.
This is a BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh, Kunwar Vijay Shah.
— Roshan Rai (@RoshanKrRaii) May 13, 2025
In this speech referring to Colonel Sofia Qureshi , he is saying that “ Modiji sent the Pakistanis their own sister to teach them a lesson”
Colonel Qureshi made India proud, roared like a lioness for India and this the… pic.twitter.com/EBHuQ3ycvd