Delhi High Court issues notice to AAP govt to create plan for handling COVID-19 bodies

Delhi High Court issued notice on a writ petition seeking directions to Delhi govt to prepare a concrete and effective plan in connection with the handling of COVID-19 affected dead bodies. The petition also sought a 24x7 helpline to provide service with regard to dead bodies along with dedicated and trained teams for handling it.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh have sought a response from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on the issue. 

The petition read, "The present writ petition is being preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuing an appropriate writ in the nature of mandamus or of any other nature as necessary directing thereby to the respondent to formulate and implement an effective and concrete plan with sufficient infrastructure to provide certain facilities to the people pertaining to the dead bodies probably infected from CORONA like a mortuary, funeral, transportation and handling facilities in this high time of urgency."

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has fixed the rates for hearse services provided for deceased COVID-19 patients, according to an official order on Saturday. A committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner, which recommended the rates for hearse/mortuary services to be provided to deceased coronavirus patients, it said. On the recommendations of the committee, the rates have been fixed, the order by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority said.

COVID In Delhi

The national capital recorded 6,456 fresh COVID-19 cases and 262 fatalities on Sunday while the positivity rate dropped to 10.40 per cent, the lowest in over a month, according to a Delhi government health bulletin. With this, the total number of cases in the city has risen to 13,93,867 and the death toll to 21,506, it said. This is the third consecutive day when Delhi has recorded less than 10,000 cases. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday extended the lockdown in the national capital for another week.