Rotten bodies and skeletons pile up month after month as dogs and rodents have a field day devouring whatever they can. The ‘village of the dead’, as the locals call it, reeks of Government insensitivity.

People from across the state visit Khanauri village almost every day looking for their relatives, who they fear have either been murdered or drowned.

According to sources, investigations into the matter could reveal that the crime rate in Punjab could well be above the official figure as none of these cases are registered and the crimes go unnoticed. The dead floating in the waters of the canal is a common sight in villages near the Bhakhra Main Line on the Khanauri-Padarthkherhi border.

“The police keep off this place because retrieving a body from the canal would result in a long-drawn process. They would have to take responsibility of cremating the dead, lodge an FIR and settle jurisdiction issues between Punjab and Haryana,” said Gurmukh Singh, a resident of Khanauri.

“Cops are ready to intervene in a property dispute and politicians are eager to get funds for development work, but no one is bothered about the dead, who end up as a nosh for canines,” he added.

“Cremation is a privilege for those who drown in Bhakhra Canal. People from across Punjab sit here for hours and days to locate their dead kin,” said Kamikkar Singh, a farmer.

However, divers, who help retrieve the bodies, make a lot of money — anything between Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 to fish out a mutilated body. “Relatives of anyone who falls into Bhakhra Main Line canal or the seasonal rivulets in Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Patiala, Rajpura or anywhere in this belt rush to this place,” said a diver.

“There is no rule or law on cremating such bodies,” said Dharminder Singh, a diver who has been in the business for the past 15 years.

Khanauri SHO Hardeep Singh said he had no knowledge about the decaying corpse. However, when he was told that the spot was just a few hundred metres from his police station, he admitted the long-drawn procedure and the legal tangle after fishing out the bodies with no one to claim them result in complications.

Sangrur DC V K Ohri said he would inquire into the incident it being a serious issue.

DIG P S Gill said he will direct Sangrur SSP Naunihal Singh to make arrangements to fish out the bodies and take necessary action.