Bharatpur Hospital faces hard time to manage unidentified bodies

CHITWAN: The Bharatpur Hospital is facing a hard time as it lacks facilities to manage unidentified bodies collected from the Bharatpur Sub-Metropolitan City (BSMC).

Concerned laws require that local governments are responsible for management of such bodies.

In the city that has been developing as a major business hub of the country, all the unidentified people who died in accidents and floods or due to sickness are sent to the Hospital for autopsy. And, the lack of management has led the morgue of the Hospital to stink.

Around 15 bodies get collected in the Hospital morgue in a month on an average. Bodies from neighbouring Nawalparasi and Makwanpur districts are also sent to the Hospital for postmortem.

In addition, bodies swept away by or found by the bank of Trishuli, Narayani and Rapti Rivers are also sent here by the local police.

Superintendent of Bharatpur Hospital, Dr Manik Lal Pradhan, however, said that the Hospital's morgue has a capacity of 10 bodies only.

According to Hospital Development Committee chairman Bijay Subedi, the bodies were being buried in the forest area of Dahakhani VDC for the past five months.

But, of later, protests by the villagers and the road blocked by the heavy rain have caused problems in burying the bodies in that area, Subedi added.

The BSMC Chief Engineer Bharat Acharya accepted that they are facing a difficult time to move the bodies. He, however, passed the buck on villagers for the problem.

The City needs serious home works for the long-term and proper solution of the problem, he added.

The Hospital has started constructing an additional mortuary so that they can manage the dead bodies more properly.