The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, after receiving complaints about several dead bodies found floating in the Ganga river in the two states.

"It (NHRC) has issued notices to the Chief Secretaries of both the states and the Secretary, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, today calling for an action taken report within four weeks," its statement noted.

According to residents in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, at least 52 bodies were seen floating at the Ujiyar, Kulhadia and Bharauli ghats in the Narahi area. Similar reports of bodies floating in Ganga have come from Bihar.

In its statement, the NHRC said that it seems the public authorities have failed to take concentric efforts in educating the masses and checking the immersion of half burnt or unburnt dead bodies into the Ganga.

India has been badly hit by the second wave of coronavirus infections and cremation grounds and burial grounds across the country have been overburdened.

On Wednesday, corpses were found in the Ganga at three places in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday night, local accounts suggesting a combined tally of about 40 bodies.

“Bodies were found in the Narahi area under the Ballia-Buxar bridge and were many days old,” Ballia district magistrate Aditi Singh said.

About a dozen bodies were found near Majhi Ghat in the Kotwa Narayanpur area and 17 near Ujiyari Ghat, both places in Ballia, on Tuesday night, local people told reporters.

Some three dozen bodies had been found in the Ganga in the Gahmar and Dildarnagar areas of Ghazipur on Tuesday, and over three dozen in Buxar on Monday.

Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha denied the Buxar bodies could have been local and sought a probe from Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.