Rajasthan govt to bear the cost of COVID-19 victims’ last rites 

Rajasthan government has made a special allocation of Rs 34.56 crores to ensure that all those people who die of COVID-19 get respectable last rites. The state government has asked various local bodies like the municipal corporations, municipal councils and  smaller municipalities to ensure that  proper last rites of the dead should be performed in the presence of the local bodies officials. The last rites of Hindus, Muslims and Christians would be performed according to their respective religious beliefs. Rajasthan is the first state to announce that the state government would bear all the expenditure on the last rites of those who die of COVID-19.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced that the local bodies would be the nodal agency to execute the work of the last rites and the sum of Rs 34.56 has been provided to the  local bodies department through the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Under this plan, the local body like a municipal council  or municipal corporations will be responsible for helping the family of the deceased by providing them free ambulance services and other expenses incurred in performing the last rites. The family of the deceased will have the option to get the last  rites performed in the place of their choice and in all such cases the expenditure would be borne by the state government.

The state government decided to provide ambulance service to the dead because of the exorbitant rates that the private vehicles were charging for this task. Now the state government has fixed the rates for the ambulance as well as the private vehicles carrying the patients whi has died of COVID-19.

The state has been witnessing a high surge in the Covid deaths and on Monday 84 persons died in various parts of the state. The number of new cases reported till Monday stood at 16,438 and according to the health minister, Raghu Sharma, every minute 11 new positive cases are being reported in Rajasthan. The tally of overall Covid infections touched 5.30  lakhs in the state and the number is growing at an alarming rate.

Rajasthan has become one of the eight states which together reported over 70 per cent of the COVID-19 cases and only 8.7 per cent population of the state has been vaccinated.

The state is facing an acute shortage of oxygen, vaccines and injections. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot rushed three senior ministers B D Kalla, Shanti Dhariwal and the health minister Raghu Sharma to Delhi to talk with the Union government regarding the supply of oxygen and vaccines.

The state government has urged the  Centre to provide additional 25 oxygen tankers because of the high cases of Corona in the state. Some of the states have surplus oxygen tankers and the Rajasthan government has asked the Centre to divert such surplus tankers to the state.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has also asked Centre to ensure that the available oxygen tankers are transported fast to the states.

Rajasthan government has decided to vaccinate all the young people above 18 free of cost. In all, 2.18 crore such youth would get vaccinated under this massive plan. Chief Minister Gehlot made this announcement and said the state would bear the cost of this vaccination which amounts to Rs 3000 crores.

Gehlot said that the Union government should have undertaken the task of vaccination of the youth, but since it is not ready, the state decided to bear the burden.