Aadhaar must to cremate dead in ghats of Varanasi

Lucknow: Aadhaar card is now mandatory for cremation of the dead at the Manikarnika and Raja Harishchandra Ghats in Varanasi.

“Aadhaar will help us in maintaining records and also the authenticity of the information about those cremated here. People come to cremate the dead from states like Bihar, Jharkhand and even West Bengal. At present, we do not have any mechanism to verify the identity of the deceased and an Aadhaar card will serve the purpose”, said Ramesh Chaudhary, one of the caretakers at the Manikarnika Ghat.

According to sources, Aadhaar has been made mandatory in collaboration with the National Disaster Response Force which mooted proper certification for cremation rituals.

The Dom community that carries out the cremation rituals has agreed to the Aadhaar clause.

Those who do not have Aadhaar cards will also not be permitted to use the services of motorboats that ferry corpses. The corpse carrying motorboat services are provided at Manikarnika Ghat by a Gujarat based foundation headed by Sudhansu Mehta and was inaugurated by Union finance minister Arun jaitley in 2015.

The local people of the ancient city, however, feel that initially the new policy will create problems for those wanting to cremate their near and dear ones in the burning ghats of Varanasi.