UP Girl Lights Father's Funeral Pyre After No Aid From Neighbours

A 15-year-old girl lit the funeral pyre of his 52-year-old father, who passed away battling COVID-19 in Noida, with support from policemen who made arrangements for the cremation after the locals refused to help the teenager and her mother. The financially-weak family hailed from West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district. The dead, along with his wife and daughter, stayed in Noida Sector 19, where he worked as the caretaker of a house. The owners of the house do not live here. The police rushed to the aid of the family on Monday night, helping them arrange an ambulance to ferry the man to the district hospital in Sector 31, where he succumbed, and then to the crematorium in Sector 94 on Tuesday, according to officials. "Since the man was a COVID-19 patient, there was no help for the girl and her mother, who were left to fend for themselves as no one from the neighbourhood came forward to support them with hospitalisation when his condition turned critical or for the cremation," local police post in-charge Hari Singh told PTI.