Prayagraj (UP), Jun 11 (IANS): The Prayagraj Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to check the practice of burying the dead on the sandy banks of Ganga at Phaphamau.

The PMC has set up a 10-member monitoring team that will advise families against burying bodies on the banks of Ganga.

PMC is also working on a proposal to perform last rites of buried bodies - those that get exposed and flow away in the Ganga during monsoons.

Zonal officer Neeraj Kumar Singh has been appointed monitoring officer to be assisted by two officials in monitoring and surveillance exercise on the ghat.

A senior PMC official said that all 10 members of the monitoring team will be working in two shifts. While interacting with families taking bodies for burial on the ghats, the officials will apprise them about the forthcoming monsoon conditions when the level of Ganga will rise and these bodies would get exposed and then they would either get washed by strong currents of the river or eaten by stray dogs.

It may be recalled that during peak Covid time (June 2021), thousands of bodies were found buried between the two banks of Ganga-from the city side of Sangam city (Teliyarganj) and Phaphamau.

Although the district administration had instructed not to bury bodies on the banks, villagers of trans-Ganga areas continued with the practice.