In what’s claimed to be a first, the Delhi Gate cemetery on Monday said it has started diverting bodies to other cemeteries in Delhi as it is about to run out of space.
Mohammed Shamim, a third-generation grave-digger of Jadid Qabristan Ahle Islam, said that on Sunday and Monday, he has asked people to take bodies to cemeteries in Yamuna Khadar, Mangolpuri, and Shastri Park.
Shamim said that they took all the 21 bodies that had come on Saturday, but that from Sunday onwards, they started asking several people to take bodies to other places. “We took 16 bodies on Sunday and 11 on Monday. We are almost out of space and barely being able to manage,” he said.
“ Jab tak chalaya jaega tab tak chalaenge, fir bandh kar denge [We will continue till we can...then we will shut it],” he added.
The grave-digger had written to his committee members regarding the space crunch earlier this month and they had written to the Lieutenant-Governor and the Chief Minister via email regarding the matter, he said.
The committee members demanded that they be allowed to use the space near Millenium Park, which was allegedly shut at the time of the outbreak of the pandemic. However, there is no movement on the issue, he said.
