Chandigarh local body to regularise Manimajra ‘cremation ground’

Seeing that residents preferred to use its ground in Manimajra as a cremation ground, the Municipal Corporation is planning to regularise it. The cremation ground in Industrial Area Phase 1 has not seen a single funeral in more than three years.

Mayor Arun Sood said that the agenda for regularising the ‘illegal’ cremation ground in Manimajra will come up in the next house meeting.

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The other cremation ground in the city is the one at Sector 25, which is also regularly used.

According to sources, people avoid the cremation ground in Industrial Phase 1 as they believe that eunuchs are buried. Also, the Manimajra cremation ground is much closer and hence, more convenient, the source said.

The cremation ground in Manimajra sees around 200 funerals a month.

“I think the administration should shut down that cremation ground in Phase I. We had in place a guard and even wood for the people to use as a pyre but nobody came. In fact, its location is very odd, totally at a different side, while this one in Manimajra is on the main road itself,” said Madan Acharya in-charge of the Manimajra cremation ground.

Acharya further added that their cremation ground is catering to people from Panchkula, Zirakpur, Manimajra and the northern part of Chandigarh. Despite there is a cremation ground in sector 20 Panchkula, because of a narrow lane there, people prefer to use the one in Manimajra.

A guard at the Industrial area phase 1 said that the cremation ground was deserted and that the authorities were not paying any attention.
Sood said that there were no takers for carrying out any sort of construction on the land where the cremation ground is present in Manimajra. So a decision would be taken to regularise it. Recently an NGO renovated the Manimajra ground.

Apart from these two grounds, there is one in sector 25 which sees funerals from across Chandigarh. Gulshan, the in-charge there said that 300 bodies were being cremated in sector 25 on monthly basis.