City’s only electric crematorium revived

Ranchi: The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Friday made the city’s sole

electric

crematorium at Harmu Muktidham, operational again in view of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed five lives in the state. A city-based group helped financially to repair the device, which was lying defunct for a decade.

RMC officials said the crematorium, which has been out of order since 2010 will now be used to dispose of bodies, including those of Covid-19 victims. The officials also said they arranged a site near Bundu for burial.

In Ranchi, one man had succumbed to the viral infection while another woman had died of co-morbidities. When the two bodies were taken for the last rites in their respective localities, the residents came out in large numbers and forced the authorities find a burial site away from habitation.

RMC deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargia said, “Such protests will no longer be there as we have the electric crematorium, which can efficiently burn the bodies within 25 minutes, and arranged a burial site at Bundu on city outskirts.”

A Muslim cleric, Kari Jaan Mohammad Mustafi, said, “Any Covid-related victims from our faith will be buried according to religious and government protocols.”

Talking to TOI, Vijayvargia said, “City-based group, Marwai Sahayak Samiti, which financed the repair and maintenance work, has been entrusted to operate the crematorium.”

He further said, “We have been trying to revive the crematorium. When a person died from Covid-19 here, the administration faced problems in identifying a site for disposing of the body. Thereafter, deputy commissioner Rai Mahimapat Ray asked us to explore the possibility of reviving the

crematorium

at the earliest.”

Vijayvargia added, “We have requested the government to waive off the crematorium’s pending electricity bill. The civic body has invested roughly Rs 3 lakh in constructing a new boundary wall and digging an underground well near the crematorium. All other expenses were borne by the samiti.” He said a fee for using it will be decided soon but it has tentatively been fixed at Rs 1,800 for now. “However, we will charge only 50% of this for the poor,” he added.

The crematorium was commissioned in 2007 at a cost of Rs 3 crore to reduce environmental pollution. It became operational in 2008. However, frequent technical snags forced the RMC to abandon it and declared it defunct in 2011. Numerous tenders were floated to revive it. RMC then accepted the proposal of the samiti to repair and maintain it. The samiti said it will run the crematorium on gas to make it more cost effective.



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