By DK Sinha
Patna: After dead bodies were fished out from Ganga in Buxar, many bodies have been found floating near the Gulabi Ghat in the state capital.
The frightful scene had unfolded at Gulabi Ghat on Thursday. “A number of bodies, including a body of a child, have been found floating in the river Ganga. Patrolling has been intensified to ensure that bodies are not dumped in the river in the district,” Patna District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh said.
The Gulabi Ghat on the Ganga river is used for carrying out cremation of bodies in Patna.
The Bihar government had on May 11 fished out 71 bodies of the suspected Covid patients from the Ganges in Buxar. District magistrate of Buxar Aman Samir had asserted that these bodies had floated to the village from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. He had contended that bodies must be 3-4 days old as they were fully bloated and decomposed. He also affirmed that these bodies are not from Buxar as bodies must have flown to some other place with the current of the river.
Chausa is about 10 kms from headquarters of the border district of Buxar, adjoining eastern Uttar Pradesh. The exorbitant cost of cremation may have compelled the poor to dump bodies in the river, said an official. It costs nearly Rs 30,000-40,000 to cremate a body as bodies keep coming to the cremation grounds in alarming numbers across the state due to the Covid pandemic.
