Karnataka minister symbolically immerses unclaimed Covid victim's ashes in river Cauvery

To ensure departed souls rest in peace, few members in the Hindu community immerse the ashes of their loved ones after cremation, but in the cases of Covid victims in Bengaluru, around 1,200 victims' ashes collected in a mud pot were lying unclaimed for two weeks.

In some cases, the family members fearing contacting Covid stayed away from customary rituals and some are genuinely orphaned who have no one to come and claim. As the ashes were piling up at 12 crematoriums in Bengaluru, the government took the decision to immerse the piled ashes.

And on Wednesday, a 'havan' was organized and Minister R Ashoka took the lead and immersed few ashes and the remaining was done by officials.

The Minister later told that, to ensure the departed souls attain peace and to give due respect to those who died and cremated, the government only took the responsibility to do the honours.

Recalling the incident where a son allegedly told the ambulance staff and a local leader to cremate a victim and hand over all the belongings when they called him to inform him about the death of his father, he said,"To ensure all such Covid victims who are disowned by their own family members get due respect, the government decided to do the visarjan." said Ashoka.

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