Hospital to build new mortuary for Maoists' bodies

Facing shortage of space to keep the bodies of Maoist insurgents killed in police encounters, the General Hospital administration here has decided to construct a new mortuary building.
The facility will be constructed within three months to ease the shortage of space and preserve the bodies of Maoist insurgents who are killed in police encounters, General Hospital's civil surgeon R S Faruqui told PTI.
The hospital administration has also asked for two more cabinets to meet these requirements, as the two cabinets available have become insufficient to preserve the dead bodies, he said.
Presently, the entire district has only five cabinets with a total capacity to preserve 10 bodies, he said.

The police department and the hospital administration are currently facing a shortage of mortuary cabinets and space for keeping these cabinets, he said.
Killed Maoist's bodies have to preserved for a long period, because many a time, they are not identified and even if they are identified, relatives do not come forward soon to claim the bodies, Faruqui said.
They are kept in the hospital building itself, causing a great deal of inconvenience to visitors, due to the foul smell from these cabinets. Patients' relatives and other visitors find it difficult to walk across due to the smell, he said.

Therefore, it has been decided to construct another room to house these cabinets outside the hospital building. The new room will be constructed near the existing mortuary which is away from the main hospital building, he said.