KURNOOL: Moved by the death of an 85-year-old woman, who was abandoned by her kin as she had died of Covid, Gadivemula tahasildar Nagamani mustered courage to perform the last rites on Tuesday. This gesture had earned praise from all corners of the society as the deceased was deserted by her family members, who were quarantined at Nandyal.
Nagamani said the deceased Donde Lakshmi lived in the middle of the village. There are scores of relatives and acquaintances residing nearby. But none of them came forward to give a decent farewell to her. "This apathy made me step in and perform the last rites", said Nagamani. She said that even the sarpanch could not assemble pall-bearers to carry the body.
The tahasildar said the deceased family has five members and all of them tested positive recently. While they preferred to stay in isolation at a Covid care centre in Nandyal, they left the old lady in the house.
She lamented that villagers were becoming too narrow-minded and not cooperating on the pretext that they would also get infected. Positive cases in the village are considerably low but still the villagers deserted her, she said.
