The number of unclaimed bodies of those killed in railway accidents have reached above 900 this year. Even after having posted details of the deceased persons on their website, the Government Railway Police (GRP) has not been getting much response from citizens. Around 2,600 commuters have been killed in rail accidents in Mumbai and its suburbs this year.
"We have a dedicated website that helps people to check if their beloved have lost their lives in a train accidents, but people don't bother to check it up," said Ravindra Singhal, GRP commissioner.
According to the GRP, 973 bodies have been left unclaimed. The GRP posts the details of the rail accident victims like the complexion, height, identification mark and the railway police station which has registered the case in its dedicated website www.shodh.gov.in. Last year, 1,119 bodies were left unclaimed with the GRP.
"It's sad to see that the bodies are left unclaimed. There is no end for the ordeal of the relatives of the dead as they would keep searching for their loved ones or wait in the hope that would come back some day," added Singhal.
Preserving the bodies becomes a difficult task for the GRP as they have to be dependent on the morgues of various civic hospitals. Hence, the bodies are cremated after a certain point of time, but not before keeping a some identity of the deceased to show to their relatives in case someone comes searching for them.
"Preserving bodies for long does become difficult; hence, we have to cremate them. But before we do that, we do keep something of the deceased for record — like a piece of cloth from their dress or any ornament that they were wearing. These things are kept in our store room so that they can come in handy for identification later," said Singhal.
According to the GRP, one of the reasons that most of the bodies are left unclaimed is because the relatives of missing persons generally don't bother to check with the GRP. While another factor stated is that most of the victims could be migrants from other states who come here for work and hence their relatives don't know about their death and never turn up to claim the body.
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