Bihar: After Buxar, bodies now found floating in Ganga in Patna, RJD leader Lalu Yadav lashes out at govt

After Bihar's Buxar, several decomposed dead bodies were now found floating in the Ganga near Patna's Gulabi Ghat on Thursday, officials said.

District Magistrate Chandrasheker Singh has directed municipal authorities to retrieve the dead bodies and cremate them properly.

According to eyewitnesses, the majority of the dead bodies are partially burnt.

"After the emergence of dead bodies in Gulabi Ghat, we have asked police and civil administration to intensify vigil along the river in a bid to ensure no one dumps dead bodies in the waters. We have also asked municipal corporation officers to take out the bodies and cremate them properly," the District Magistrate said.

The counting of dead bodies is underway in Gulabi Ghat, a cremation ground located at Mahendru area of the state capital.

According to a shop owner at Gulabi Ghat, a number of people, generally poor people unable to bear expenses of cremation materials, are allegedly dumping dead bodies in the river without cremation in absence of police personnel.

The District Magistrate said: "We have been appealing to people of Bihar to not to dump dead bodies in rivers without cremation. We are also making efforts to find out whether dead bodies are came from other places."

Meanwhile in Buxar, five dead bodies were found in a net placed by district administration in the Ganga at Rani Ghat. The dead bodies came from adjoining Uttar Pradesh, say officials.

On Tuesday, 71 dead bodies floating from upstream Uttar Pradesh were found on the banks of the Ganga at Chausa in Buxar. Besides, two dozen dead bodies also found in neighbouring Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh as well.

Meanwhile, former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad has targeted the government over the issue.

Lalu Prasad alleged that the deceased did not get treatment when they were alive and are not even getting shrouds after their death.

Lalu Prasad tweeted, "While they were alive they did not get medicine, oxygen, beds and treatment. Now after death, no shrouds, wood, and the ground where they could be cremated. Out of extreme miseries dead bodies were thrown into the Ganges. Dogs are eating corpses. Hindus are being buried. Where are you taking this country and humanity?"

Earlier, RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav also targeted the government on this issue.

Tejaswi wrote on Twitter, "Hundreds of corpses were found floating in the Ganges in Bihar's Buxar. Imagine how terrible the situation is. The government is still in denial and not accepting the ground reality. The double engine government has failed, so now the infection has spread to the villages as well. After hospitals, there is no place even in crematoriums? People are forced to throw dead bodies into the river."

With IANS inputs