VARANASI: The crackle of burning pyres, like the hiss of a giant serpent, feeds the smoke that is bellowing from Varanasi`s Harishchandra Ghat, an old cremation ground on Ganga`s banks. The heat is intolerable, singeing almost, and Rajesh Singh, 35, who runs a small departmental store in Lahartara, is sweating profusely, waiting for his turn. His uncle has just died from Covid-19 and the funeral rites have to be done. The "manager" asks him for Rs 11,000. When Singh protests, saying it shouldn`t be more than Rs 5,000, the man asks him to leave with the body he has brought.

Across cremation grounds in UP, harried kin of those who have fallen to the virus are being overcharged. And they have no recourse but to pay up. With bodies brought in unending piles, caretakers at these places have neither the time nor the patience to bargain.

“The same wood and `samagri` that were earlier available for Rs 3,000 to 4,000 is now being sold for Rs 11,000 or more," Singh told TOI on Sunday. "The quantity is also compromised, but you just can`t ask anything. Where will people go with dead bodies?"

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Another person, who didn`t want to be named, that this correspondent met said he was reduced to tears. “I lost my aunt on April 14. I paid Rs 22,000 for her cremation at Harishchandra Ghat. Then I lost my grandmother yesterday (Saturday) and this time I was made to shell out Rs 30,000. They said, ‘Forget the earlier rate, can’t you see how many bodies are in the queue?` I had to give in."

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He added, “Even after overcharging, the services are not satisfactory. The wooden logs, at times, are not sufficient. Often partially burnt logs are stuffed into fresh pyres.”

It`s the same story at Meerut’s Surajkund cremation ground. A team led by local municipal commissioner Manish Bansal held talks with people of the ghat over pricing. Bansal said, “We were getting complaints that purohits (priests) are fleecing relatives of the dead. We held a meeting and told them the rate should be fixed. A rate list for all other items has also been put up now.”

According to rough estimates from people staffing Harishchandra Ghat, in the last week alone at least 40 to 60 bodies were cremated on wooden pyres daily, up from 10-15 during pre-Covid times. The gas crematorium in Varanasi was inundated and just couldn`t take the load.

After several complaints, the local administration seems to be finally waking up. “Now we have fixed rates for cremations. Someone who has died due to reason other than Covid-19 will be cremated at Rs 5,000. And Covid-19 victims for Rs 7,000," Deepak Kumar, a sub-inspector posted at Assi outpost in Varanasi, said. "And for electric crematorium, it will be Rs 500. The community in charge of the burning ghats has agreed. We will put up a rate list prominently."

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