As relatives continue to seek for their loved ones amid the dead of the Odisha railway catastrophe victims, the Bhubaneswar municipal corporation has announced that 30 DNA samples taken from visitors will be sent to AIIMS in New Delhi. Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Suryawanshi Mayur Vikas told that all 30 collected DNA samples will be sent to AIIMS Delhi and it will take 7 to 8 days to get a detailed report. The Additional Commissioner said over 80 bodies had piled up in different hospitals awaiting identification.
He said that many relatives of the victims of the Balasore train tragedy were unable to identify the bodies kept at AIIMS Bhubaneswar and five other centres. They returned home after giving their DNA samples and these collected samples will be sent to AIIMS Delhi, the Additional Commissioner said.
“It will take 7 to 8 days to get report. So all 30 relatives will have to wait for another one week to get custody of the bodies. Many relatives left Bhubaneswar after giving their samples as there were no facilities for them to stay at Bhubaneshwar. Tomorrow all 30 collected samples will be sent to Delhi AIIMS,” he said on Tuesday.
The additional commissioner further said that the government is facilitating the work to avoid any inconvenience to the affected families.
“We will be doing DNA sampling for the unidentified bodies. The State government is working with the aim to avoid causing any inconvenience to the affected families”, Suryawanshi said.
He added that the government will be taking care of all expenses relating to the transfer of bodies.
“We will be bearing all costs for the transfer of bodies and we have arrangements for those who are waiting for DNA report”, he added.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the West Bengal Government have set up helpdesks at AIIMS Bhubaneswar for people looking for their kin after the three-train accident in Odisha’s Balasore.
Prateek Singh, the Deputy Commissioner of Police from Bhubaneswar said that there are cases where one body is being claimed by multiple families.
“In such cases, we are going for DNA testing. We have taken DNA samples of all bodies. We have received 193 bodies in different hospitals here,” the DCP said. The biggest challenge, according to Jitin Yadav, Additional District Magistrate of Howrah, is the identification of bodies. “We are assisting those from West Bengal.” The primary problem we’re having is identifying bodies. In rare circumstances, numerous claims exist for the same body. In such circumstances, DNA testing would be performed,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the total number of deaths in the Balasore train tragedy has been updated to 288, according to Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena on Tuesday.
193 bodies were sent to Bhubaneswar, while 94 dead were handed over in Balasore. A relative received the remains of one individual who died while receiving treatment for his injuries at Bhadrak hospital. On June 2, an accident involving the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, the Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express, and a cargo train near Bahanagar Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district injured around 1000 people. According to preliminary investigations, the crash may have been caused by “signalling interference.”