N 24 Parganas crematorium awaits unclaimed body to start functioning
Times of India | 19 August 2024
Kolkata: Gobardanga’s newly-constructed electric crematorium awaits inauguration due to a curious reason. As per convention, the first body to be cremated has to be an unclaimed one. But for the past several weeks, no such corpse has reached the crematorium.
Two electric crematoria have been created at Gobardanga burning ghat in response to a growing demand.The newly commissioned electric units need two bodies to start their operation. As per convention, a new crematorium has to start operations by burning an unclaimed body.
The Kalachand Kundu cremation ghat on the bank of Yamuna river in Gobardanga has been functioning with four pyres run with wood as fuel. People of Gobardanga Municipality along with three neighbouring gram panchayats and six blocks use this more than century-old crematorium for the last rites of their relatives. “It is a busy cremation ground which is used by many for the sanctity of the place. We have installed two electric crematoriums to facilitate burning rites. The units are ready for the last few months but could not start its operation for want of unclaimed bodies. Once we get the bodies the units will start functioning,” said Sankar Dutta, the chairman of Gobardanga municipality.
An electric crematorium unit needs an unclaimed body to start its operation. “During its maiden run if any functional failure occurs then the body could not be cremated properly. In that case the near and dear ones of the dead person will be hurt emotionally. So it needs an unclaimed body for its first run,” said Susovan Moulick sub assistant engineer of Gobardanga municipality.
The construction work of the electric units was started in 2019. The entire work was completed by KMDA. One unit will be functional and the other one shall remain ready as a standby unit.
“We have a long term demand for electric crematorium here. Everyday at an average nearly 30 bodies come, but many have to return due to long queues as the wood pyres take 3-4 hours to cremate a body. In winter 60-70 bodies come here for cremation. Many prefer this place as cremation ghats in Kolkata are too far from our place,” said Pankaj Pain who looks after day-to-day affairs at the cremation ghat.
The municipality is going through a process to get two unclaimed bodies which will help in checking the units’ proper functioning. “There is no other way to test whether the furnaces are fit to burn a body completely to ashes. The units need to be charged 72 hours before they start burning bodies. Once the unclaimed bodies are available we will take another 10 days to start its operation,” said Moulick.