In a long-awaited intervention to set things right at the municipality-run crematorium at Karuvadikuppam, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Sunday inspected the site and found anomalies in the functioning of the electric incinerator.
Ms. Bedi’s visit comes against the backdrop of complaints of fleecing of the mourners at the cremation ground and their harrowing experience with ‘vettiyans’ (undertakers).
Complaints galore
The high-handedness of of ‘vettiyans’ had been the talking point for a long time but the successive governments had failed to address the issue. “Found the complaints correct. The machines were reported to be non-functional for the last several months. The annual maintenance contract was not maintained. The cremation ground has no documentation system so essential for this vital municipal service,” Ms. Bedi said in a Raj Nivas press note after the surprise inspection. The Lieutenant Governor said the crematorium failed to maintain a record of bodies cremated and money charged.
“No money was accruing from these services to the municipality. Apparently, the functioning of the essential municipal service has not received the attention it needed,” she said.
The civic body had fixed a fee of ₹1,000 for the electric cremation and surprisingly no fee had been fixed by the authorities for traditional cremation, giving a free hand to the vettiyans to charge at their ‘whims and fancies.’ According to a retired staff from the Local Administration Department, the fee was never adhered to by the staff.
Exorbitant charges
The LAD had received complaints of overcharging up to ₹8,000 for traditional cremation, he told The Hindu . “It is a pity that they bargain over a body. Usually, the relatives heed to the demand and pay the amount demanded by the staff,” he said. The electric crematorium would be on most days under maintenance for “inexplicable reasons,” he said and added that there had been a nexus between the staff and a few local politicians that had led to the situation.
Ms. Bedi directed the Secretary, LAD and Oulgaret Municipality Commissioner to come up with a time-bound programme to revive the electric crematorium.
