Residents protest setting up waste compactor at cremation ground

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 11

Accusing the Municipal Corporation and Ludhiana Improvement Trust of ignoring the dignity of the dead, a large number of residents staged a protest against these departments for making an attempt to set up a static waste compactor at cremation ground of Barewal.

Slamming the authorities, the residents said they have been cremating dead persons at the cremation ground for a long time with full respect and they don’t want any garbage dump or static waste compactor to be set up on the land of the cremation ground.

When the residents came to know that the work is going to start for the construction of the dumping site, they gathered there to mark their protest today. Meanwhile, the police also reached the site to control the situation.

The MC’s plan to set up a static waste compactor on the cremation ground land is being strongly criticised by a religious body. Tarlochan Singh, a resident, said: “The management committee of Gurdwara Sanjha Sahib had earlier gone to the court against the MC and LIT’s plan of setting up a garbage dump on the cremation ground land. The court has issued a stay order. Now, these departments are violating the court’s stay order.”

A senior officer of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust, Boota Ram, said the MC had identified the site for setting up the static waste compactor. The LIT was to execute the project only, he said.

On the other hand, MC officials claimed that the court had allowed them to set up a dump on one side of the cremation ground. The MC’s Assistant Town Planner MS Bedi said the MC House had approved a resolution to set up a static waste compactor at a portion of the cremation ground land, which is the MC’s land, about a few years ago.

“The compactor is not to be set up at that location where the court had earlier issued a stay order. Now, the court has allowed the MC to set up the waste compactor at the new proposed location. Moreover, entrance to waste compactor would be from the Sua side, while the visitors enter the cremation ground from another side,” he said.