Bhayandar: Broken stands for pyres, no drinking water facility and overgrown shrubs – the lone crematorium for the Bhayandar (west) area in Bhola Nagar paints a sorry picture of utter neglect for the past couple of months. The crematorium is plagued with multiple problems including non-functional water coolers, unhygienic atmosphere, lack of proper lighting arrangements and broken trolleys to ferry wood. All this has escalated the trauma of relatives and mourners who are already under stress owing to their loss.
“The condition of the crematorium is extremely pathetic. Repeated complaints have gone to the deaf ears of the administration. A person’s final journey should be dignified and, therefore, the place must be repaired soon and maintained in a proper manner,” said former municipal corporator Om Prakash Agarwal. When contacted, MBMC’s Executive Engineer Deepak Khambit said, “While the casting-made pyre stands will soon be replaced with iron ones for better durability, standing instructions have been issued to the concerned officials to immediately rectify all other problems in the crematorium.”
Interestingly, the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has recently deployed a private contractor to spend lakhs of rupees towards the maintenance and renovation work under the garb of modernizing the crematorium. However, the condition has just gone worse and with the way the civic authorities are handling the matter, it seems that even the dead will not be resting in peace.