KHONSA, Apr 30: A conglomeration of organizations in Tirap district has written to Chief Minister Pema Khandu, demanding that medical tests be carried out on the relatives and well-wishers of a deceased person who was brought to the district for burial, within three days.
In a joint representation, the civil society organizations and student bodies claimed that the body of one Yadik Pulom was transported by three people, including the driver, from Itanagar to Tirap district via the Hukanjuri check gate at 11 pm on 8 April, “whereas the permitted time for movement was from 6 am to 8 pm.”
The body was buried at the Khonsa burial ground, they said.
The deceased had been suffering from sugar deficiency, and passed away on 7 April, at 3 am, at RK Mission Hospital in Itanagar, as per the death certificate issued by the doctor concerned, they said.
Claiming that the DC, the DMO, the local MLAs and the people here were not kept in the loop about the incident and were made aware of it very recently, the organizations said that “those who accompanied the deceased were not quarantined and moved freely in the township,” and were “deported back to Itanagar without being quarantined.”
They also demanded a clarification within seven days as to “why the deceased was brought and buried at Tirap district when the deceased belongs to Shi-Yomi district.”
The organizations, which include the All Tirap District Students’ Union, the All Nocte Women’s Association, the Nocte Students’ Union, the Nocte Mothers’ Federation, the All Tutsa Students’ Union, and the TCL People’s Forum, said that “the issue is being taken up by the associations not keeping any individual as an enemy or out of malice, but taking into consideration the safety of a larger cause.”
They said the Tirap DC verbally denied having received any intimation regarding the transportation of the dead body to the district, “while the Tirap SP conveyed to the agitated denizens that the road pass was issued to transport the dead body by the Itanagar capital region deputy commissioner.
“The denizens feel that this act has humiliated the customary laws and undermined the administrative authority. All the more, this act is a violation of the standard operation procedures of the Covid-19,” they said in the representation.
