Height of helplessness

LUCKNOW: In a heartrending incident in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, an elderly man was forced to carry the body of his deceased wife on a bicycle for hours in search of a place to cremate her, foreign media reported.

Locals of the village in Jaunpur did not allow the funeral of the woman fearing coronavirus. The administration, however, has not confirmed if she was Covid positive. The elderly man then ended up carrying his wife on the bicycle and rode around the place for hours.

No one in the village tried to help the man with the cremation, nor did anyone reach out to him to share his grief. On the other hand, they ended up stopping the man from cremating his wife at the cremation ghat near the village.

After the police were informed of the ordeal, the Jaunpur Police then conducted the last rites of the woman at Ramghat on Tuesday. A youth, with the help of his friend, carried the body of his mother, who reportedly tested positive for Coronavirus, on a bike from a private hospital at Palasa-Kasibugga town of Andhra Pradesh to his native village Killoy as ambulance drivers allegedly refused to shift the body.

The woman, G. Chenchula (50) was brought to the hospital from Killoy, 20 km away from Palasa-Kasibugga town. She reportedly died even before the treatment began. As she tested positive for COVID, the hospital allegedly refused to arrange for an ambulance to shift the body to her native village. Left with no other option, the son, along with his friend, carried the body on a bike.