Protest for better facilities at Kalpalli crematorium

Irked by the apathy of BBMP towards the Kalpalli crematorium-cum-burial ground near Fraser Town, the biggest in the City, members of Bharatinagar Residents' Forum staged a protest there on Sunday. 

The members, along with local citizens, garlanded the portraits of Mayor B N Manjunatha Reddy and Palike Commissioner Kumar Naik to register their protest.

 They demanded immediate improvement in the amenities there.

They shouted slogans holding placards with messages like “Mr Mayor and Commissioner, clean the Kalpalli burial ground, we did not live in peace, at least let us die in peace.”

N S Ravi, president of the forum, said that the crematorium was built in 1988 by the civic agency spending Rs 21 lakh. 

“Over the years, its condition has deteriorated. There are no proper toilets, no drinking water facility and streetlights. There are no security guards either.”

 Residents complained that the crematorium had become a haven for anti-social activities and garbage was being dumped, unauthorisedly, by the civic agency itself. 

According to the forum members who have been approaching Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on the issue for more than five years now, around eight to 10 bodies are cremated or buried here every day. 

“The gravediggers who have been working for more than two decades have not been given residential quarters. If the BBMP officials do not take any action to improve the facility within two weeks, we will hold a huge protest in front of the Palike head office,” Ravi said.  

The crematorium is spread across 54 acres and is the biggest in Bengaluru, citizens said. “While the crematorium is in a better condition, the burial ground is in a bad shape with weeds growing all over. The visitors go back thirsty as there is no drinking water facility here,” said a gravedigger.