Gandhinagar, April 9 : Depicting the grim situation due to the coronavirus infection in the Diamond City, the authorities of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) have been forced to depute primary school teachers to the crematorium to register the arriving bodies.
The situation in Gujarat is going from bad to worse as not only the number of coronavirus patients is on the rise but so is the number of deaths, especially in Surat.
According to the state health bulletin, there were 14 deaths reported due to Corona, the highest number in Gujarat on Thursday.But according to sources, the reality is far grimmer.
According to records obtained from the crematorium of Surat, there are around 240-250 deaths reported everyday, out of which more than half have to be handled with Covid protocols.
The situation is so bad that the additional City engineer of the SMC on Thursday instructed the primary teachers to work in shifts at the Kurukshetra Shamshanbhoomi in the Jahangirpura area to register the arriving bodies and other documentation.
“The current decision, says the order, “has been taken looking at the current situation, where disposing off dead bodies has to be carried out in 24 hours and the teachers would have to work directly under the west zone deputy health officer.” Each of the teachers has been assigned duties from 6 a.m.to 2 p.m., 2 p.m.to 10 p.m.and from 10 p.m.to 6 a.m.A total of five teachers have been deputed under the health official by the additional City engineer.
The Gujarat State Municipality Primary Teachers Federation has outrightly opposed this decision and asked the SMC authorities to retract the order and punish the official who has issued it.
“This duty is not an appropriate duty to be assigned to a teacher.We demand this order to be immediately retracted and punish the official who has ordered it.We also want to know whether the Surat Municipal Commissioner is cognizant about such an order or not? We demand that the teachers who have been deputed should be called back and class IV employees should be assigned the work described,” said an office bearer of the Federation
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