Kottayam: In a disheartening incident, non-cooperation by municipality officials delayed the burial of an infant’s body for 36 hours.
After police intervention, the Ettumanoor municipality granted land to bury the body but did not allocate any workers. Following this, a team of policemen led by a Sub Inspector dug up a grave and buried the body on Friday noon.
The infant, born to a woman residing in Vedagiri area, had died on Thursday noon following complications during delivery. After inquest, the body was taken to the public cemetery. However, the Ettumanoor municipality said there was no room to bury the body.
“We submitted an application requesting to bury the body on Thursday itself. But the municipality did not take any action. The application was returned stating that the matter was under the jurisdiction of Athirampuzha panchayat. We procured a letter from the panchayat and gave it to the municipality but they caused further delays citing one reason after another,” police said.
“At last, the municipality officials agreed to grant some space inside the cemetery in Teralakam by 1 pm on Friday. Although the space was allocated, the municipality did not provide workers or any other help to bury the body in the cemetery,” police added.
Following this, the policemen led by the SI themselves dug up a grave and buried the infant’s body.
According to the municipality, the cemetery is undergoing renovation and hence permission was granted to bury the infant’s body in a temporary cemetery. Municipality officials added that the permission was granted on humanitarian grounds despite opposition from local residents.
