Pune: In this pandemic, the Maharashtra State Deputy Chief Minister and Pune District Guidance minister Ajit Pawar had appealed to all administration and political parties to work together in this but it seems the ground reality is different. Recently, a Pune resident passed away due to COVID-19, in a rural area, and the PMC officials took possession of his body.
According to the police, the body was not taken away due to a dispute over boundaries.
A resident of Ward No. 23 in Hadapsar, died at a hospital in Manjari Budrak due to COVID-19. At that time, the Pune Municipal Corporation's office gave them a pass to perform the funeral rites at Yerawada Cemetery.
At that time, Arun Jangam, the head of the Corona Mortuary of the PMC took a stand that the dead bodies would not be taken away from the rural areas without being informed or sanctioned by the senior officers.
He refused to accept the body as the patient did not belong to the PMC limits and it fell under the grampanchayat limits. Thus, even after the death of the person, the officials played a blame game of boundaries.
Finally, corporator Yogesh Sasane requested the PMC health department's Dr. Kalpana Baliwant and requested her that they should take responsibility for the corpses in rural areas too.
Speaking to Sakal Times Sasane said that, "The deceased is within the municipal limits. Finally, we called an ambulance from Hadapsar and arranged for the mortal to be taken to Yerawada Cemetery. The question is whether the administration will disregard the body even after the death of the man. This is highly inhuman act. In this situation we all need to be together to fight rather than discriminating on jurisdiction limits."
