Nodal officers appointed for hassle-free cremation or burial of Covid victims
KOLKATA: In a bid to ensure proper arrangement for dignified cremation or burial of Covid victims, the state government has taken a series of initiatives, including appointing nodal officers to help people for the same in all municipal areas across the state.
At the same time, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has also appointed a health officer for every borough for cremation at Dhapa.
The state government had earlier announced that family members of a Covid victim do not have to pay any money for booking hearse vans to ferry the last remains of their near and dear ones. Moving a step ahead, the state government has issued a notification with name and phone number of the nodal officers in respective municipal areas.
Deputy CMHO Dr Basudeb Mukherjee, whose phone number is 9830062150, is the nodal officer for borough I to borough V that is the area starting from Cossipore and Sinthee in North Kolkata to Esplanade. He is also the nodal officer for the areas under the jurisdiction of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation. Similarly, Executive Health Officer of borough VI Dr Utpal Kanji (9830022006) is the nodal officer for the area borough VI to X that is from Esplanade to Tollygunge and Executive Health Officer of borough XI Dr Subrata Moulik (9830284729) will look after the same for borough XI to XVI that covers the areas like Tollygunge, Behala, Jadavpur, Baghajatin and Joka. The contact number of Covid coordinator is 9830241660. Joint Commissioner of KMC Somnath De is in-charge of overall coordination.
The contact numbers of the hearse coordinator in Kolkata are 9007615879, 7900155805 and 7980488909. It needs a mention that a few days ago an employee of the civic body was arrested for taking bribes from family members of a Covid victim for cremation. The arrest came after the authorities stepped up their efforts to put a check on such practices, after receiving a specific complaint in this regard.
Death certificates will be immediately issued from the crematorium or burial ground if the last rites have been performed within the same municipal area of which he or she was a resident.
In case, if the person is resident of some other area, then cremation or burial certificate will be issued initially and his or her family members need to collect a death certificate from the office of civic body of which the victim was a resident. It will be issued within 72 hours of the cremation.
For any queries in this connection, one may also contact the state control number 03322141995 or the helpline number of State Urban Development Agency 18004191198.
