The New Indian Express 27.10.2010
No place in city to perform last rites!
HYDERABAD: It seems the dead in this city cannot have their last rites performed properly. A city of nearly one crore population has just two electric crematoriums and even they are out of order, gathering dust for the last few months.For the last few months, families and well-wishers wanting to perform the last rites of their kin in accordance with their customs have been finding it difficult to cremate the dead bodies. While the electric crematorium at Amberpet is defunct for more than a year, the one at Bansilalpet is not functioning due to technical snags. As a result families bringing their dead are being turned away by GHMC staff.
A senior GHMC official told Expresso these defunct crematoria would not be functioning for some more months as the furnace equipment has to be replaced with modern equipment.
The former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy had asked the GHMC to modernise the existing crematoriums and construct four new ones in July 2009. However, it seems the pleas of the late YSR has fallen on deaf ears as the corporation is definitely not in a hurry to take immediate repair measures. Therefore, the new crematoriums which were supposed to come up in Punjagutta and Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar by the year-end at an estimated cost of `6 to `8 crore are still in the pipeline.
