Patna high court seeks report on Buxar bodies

PATNA: The Patna high court on Wednesday sought a report from the state government on the bodies recovered from the river Ganga in Buxar.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar directed the state government to submit a report on the number of bodies found, where they came from and how they were being handled and disposed of.
Advocate general Lalit Kishore submitted orally before the court that senior authorities of the state government at various levels have spoken to their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh from where the bodies came from flowing downstream.
The court wanted to know if the state government had formed a war-room, as per earlier direction, to continuously monitor the crisis arising from the second wave of Covid-19. Kishore, at this point, submitted that the war room is ready and the court can inspect it anytime.
The bench asked about the 12-member committee of experts to which the state government responded that it has been formed.
The state chief secretary submitted a more than 180-page affidavit over testing and other health facilities in the state on which the bench observed that it would go through it and fixed the next hearing for Thursday.
Counsel for AIIMS-Patna Binay Kumar Pandey and senior counsel Yogesh Chandra Verma raised the non-availability of oxygen at the primary health centres (PHC) and referral hospitals in rural areas across the state. They submitted that the villagers are suffering as they are having to rush to cities and big hospitals such as AIIMS in Patna.
At this point, Supreme Court counsel Vikash Singh apprised the court that the state government is making all the arrangements at the PHCs and referral hospitals for treatment of Covid-19 patients at these places. Singh appeared for the state along with Kishore and additional advocate general Anjani Kumar.
Verma also raised the issue of younger people not getting vaccines and the release of prisoners from jails in the light of the Supreme Court's direction.
He also raised the issue of people having to pay up to Rs 40,000 for cremating bodies of Covid-19 victims at burning ghats. However, no direction was passed by the bench on these issues.
On the issue of oxygen, the Centre’s additional solicitor general KN Singh assured the court that there was no more oxygen crisis in the state and the central government was also providing a large number of additional oxygen cylinders here. Counsels SD Sanjay, PK Shahi, Sumeet Kumar Singh also appeared at the hearing.