For K.K. Pudur residents, the wait to have a decent burial ground and an electric crematorium seems to have no end.
On the northern side of the Coimbatore Corporation’s dump yard in Kavundampalayam is the land earmarked for burial ground. The land measuring 2.50 acre is under encroachment.
More than 50 families had encroached upon the land by building tile-roofed houses, said K.K.M. Selvaraju, a resident. They had encroached upon the land for several years. Neither the Coimbatore district administration nor the civic body had taken steps to relocate the families from the land earmarked Hindu burial ground, he added.
The district administration and Corporation had allotted the land to the Hindus sometime in 2000 after a long-pending dispute among Hindus, Muslims and the administration. While assigning the 2.50 acre to the Hindus, the district administration and Corporation (then Coimbatore Municipality) had allotted two acres for Muslims on the western side of the Kavundampalayam dump yard and 1.75 acre on Mettupalayam Road, south of the bus stand.
The 2.50 acre burial ground for Hindus and two acre burial ground for Muslims were the alternative sites agreed upon for giving up claims over the land where the bus stand stood, said V. Dhamodaran, another resident.
But the allotment did not solve the K.K. Pudur residents’ demand for a burial ground. Even as they were asking for removing the encroachments, the then Corporation dispensation had attempted to build a crematorium on the southern side of the dump yard, abutting Jeeva Nagar.
The residents had moved the Madras High Court against the site chosen for the crematorium saying it was in the midst of houses and very close to the 2.50 acre identified Hindu burial ground and therefore the Corporation would do well to build the crematorium there.
To this date, the residents demand was not met, Mr. Dhamodaran said and wanted the Corporation to work with the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board to resettle the families that had encroached upon the land.
This was important because there was no crematorium in the area, he added.
The Corporation sources said they would look into the issue.
