Family of deceased told to pay for shroud at Karnal mortuary

Parveen Arora

Karnal, January 29

Despite directions by the Health Department to provide a "kafan" (shroud) free of cost to cover a body after the postmortem, family members of one of the deceased were allegedly asked to either pay for it or bring it from outside at the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) mortuary.

"I went to the mortuary house on recently for the postmortem of one of my relatives who died in an accident. I was asked to pay Rs 670 for "kafan", and I paid, but someone told me that "kafan" is provided free of cost by the government. I have filed a complaint with the Civil Surgeon," said Davinder Sachdeva, a resident of Ram Nagar here.

"Charging for "kafan" from family members has become a common practice here. I have requested the authorities to conduct an inquiry into the matter," he added.

"Kafan" is supposed to be provided by District Civil Hospital. Dr Yogesh Sharma, Civil Surgeon, said they had provided sufficient cloth for the purpose.

"Doctors and pharmacists of the Civil Hospital conduct postmortems, and the supporting staff comes from the KCGMC. We have provided more than 1,000m of cloth for "kafan". I will ask the KCGMC director for a detailed inquiry," said Sharma. Dr Jagdish Dureja, Director, KCGMC, said, "I will get the inquiry into the matter done and will take stern action against those demanding money for "kafans".

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