Chandigarh Mayor raps officials over poor maintenance of children’s graveyard

Sood, who had gone to the Sector 25 cremation ground to participate in a cleanliness drive by the Nirankari mission, met the officials there and gave them a dressing down on the issue. Local councillor Subhash Chawla was also present.

Sood told the officials he was getting complaints on a regular basis and that officials had turned a blind eye.

“I asked the officials why no proper wiring is done there,” he said.

Chawla, a Congress member of the House, said a few months ago, a grief-stricken mother who had just buried her two-year-old son, came back to graveyard, where to her shock, she found that a stray dog had dug up the grave.

“We wouldn’t have come to know had the mother not informed us. Though we had got some wiring done there but it isn’t sufficient. It is a jungle area and stray dogs are around. A boundary wall can also not be constructed here,” said Chawla.

A local resident had a similar tale to tell. “There was a woman in our colony whose newborn died after just a week. They had gone to bury the child and later they got to know that there were stray dogs around the grave. We had brought this to the notice of authorities but all in vain.

The family shifted to Muzzafarnagar after the death of their baby,” said Anil Kumar, president of Janta and Kumhar colony in Sector 25.

Chief engineer Mukesh Anand was directed to take up the matter with the forest department and chalk out a solution.

Sood also asked the officials to make zones in the children’s graveyard. “The colony inmates here informed how when they would dig up a place, other bodies would come out. So we will earmark zones so that everyone knows the location of graves.”

As there is no proper water facility at the cremation ground, the engineering wing was told to ensure proper water supply.