India, April 11 -- There are at least 78 unclaimed corpses lying in various morgues of government hospitals across the city, straining the already inadequate infrastructure. The bodies are mostly of unidentified accident victims, beggars and senior citizens, officials said.

Hospitals and senior police officers have now directed the local police stations that brought the bodies to the morgues to complete the formalities at the earliest. In the case of identified bodies, police stations have been asked to hand them over to their respective families. If the bodies are unidentified, they've been told to dispose of them by carrying out their last rites.

"As per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the photos of the deceased are circulated...