Lucknow’s biggest crematorium is being covered on all sides with tin sheets, sparking allegations that the Uttar Pradesh government is trying to hide the spike in Covid deaths.

A Lucknow civic official said Baikunth Dham was being covered because passersby were finding it uncomfortable seeing pyres burning.

The number of bodies at Baikunth Dham and Gullala Ghat has gone up sharply in the past few days, with staff members saying most were Covid patients.

The two electric incinerators at Baikunth Dham have not been enough. On Wednesday afternoon, 60 beds of firewood had been laid at the two crematoriums. On Thursday, the number of bodies at Baikunth Dham was 78, up from 60 a week ago and 20 a month ago.

The rise in the number of bodies has prompted allegations that the government was trying to hide the actual Covid toll. Uttar Pradesh on Thursday reported 104 coronavirus deaths and 22,439 fresh cases, the highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic. Only Maharashtra has reported more daily cases.

Rows of burning pyres at Baikunth Dham on Thursday evening. PTI

On Thursday, many social media users uploaded videos and pictures of labourers putting up blue tin sheets along the waist-level grille boundary of Baikunth Dham.

Surya Pratap Singh, a retired IAS officer, wrote on Twitter: “An effort is on to hide the dead bodies. Bhainsakund is being covered so that people cannot take its picture. Humanity is dead.”

Baikunth Dham is also known as Bainsakund.

Singh tagged Narendra Modi and asked: “Prime Minister @narendramodi ji, it was this state which had given you power, why are you behaving like this with us?”

Juhie Singh, a Samajwadi Party leader, said: “The government is not ready to accept that it has failed to honour the dead and now it wants to hide this. The government is busy in virtual meetings and at the same time is trying its best to suppress the truth.”

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, has said he will now hold virtual meetings with officials while being in quarantine.

A senior official of the Lucknow Nagar Nigam said on the condition of anonymity: “The incarceration chambers are covered. But these temporary pyre beds are in the open. People had complained to us that they were feeling uncomfortable at the sight of bodies burning while passing by Baikunth Dham. So we decided to cover the premises.”