Statestimes: Jammu: Saturday, July 04, 2020.
It is really unfortunate that the PIO of J&K UT Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat has dodged RTI queries on a very important issue i.e., sensitisation of general public with regard to COVID-19 guidelines on dead body management for dignified cremation/ burial of COVID victims. It was alleged by the RTI Activist, Balvinder Singh while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
Giving further details, Singh said that when two corporators and few people of Ward No 6 & 7 didn’t allow cremation of a corona victim at Jogi Gate Jammu few days back, then on May 17, 2020 I sent a representation to Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu through e-mail on subject ‘Public must be sensitised that infection is unlikely to spread from dead body of COVID victim as per guidelines of WHO and MOHFW Govt of India’, requesting LG to make it a part of his speech or address to general public through print and electronic media or direct the higher ups, who have been assigned the task of dealing with COVID-19, to immediately put the basics of both the above aforementioned guidelines in public domain at the earliest to avoid recurrence of any such incident.
“After a week, when nothing came out from administration regarding sensitisation of public or guidelines for dignified cremation of COVID victims, then on May 23, I filed a RTI in Raj Bhawan and asked for providing detail when my representation was presented before LG. I also asked for providing me details regarding action taken till date along with a copy of all file notings made on said representation in the LG’s Secretariat and copies of all letters, if any, written by the office of LG to other departments with regard to said representation. The PIO instead of providing me full details gave only the date when the RTI application was received in LG’s Secretariat. In response to remaining queries, the PIO stated ‘In this context, it is to inform that e-mail dated 17.05.2020 was considered by the competent authority and the H&ME Department has been issuing necessary advisories/awareness thereof’,” asserted Singh, adding that the response of PIO of Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat proved that he has scant respect towards provisions of RTI Act 2005. Further referring to judgement of Bombay High Court delivered by Division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde which stated, ‘Right to burial/ cremation, commensurate with dignity of the individual, is recognised as a facet of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the constitution.
There is, thus, no reason as to why an individual who dies during this period of crisis because of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection would not be entitled to facilities he/she would have otherwise been entitled to but for the crisis’, Singh urged LG, Chief Secretary and Financial Secretary H&ME to follow the aforementioned judgement and bring in an ordinance to ensure dignified burial or cremation of COVID victims. Others present on the occasion included Manmohan Singh, Ayaz Ahmad Khan, Sharanjit Singh, Jasbir Singh, Mahesh Singh Kotwal and Jasmeet Singh.
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