SC man cremated on roadside in Moodbidri

The final rites of a man from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community, who passed away on Sunday, were performed beside the road at Kallamundkoor due to the absence of a crematorium.

The incident is a blot on the reputation of Kallamundkoor gram panchayat that had won Gandhi Grama Puraskar recently. Babu of Kallamundkoor had breathed his last on the five cents of land he owned. As there is no public crematorium in the village, the body was cremated beside the road itself.

The residents of the gram panchayat had been demanding a crematorium for members of the SC community for years. GP president Jockhim said, "I had set aside Rs five lakh for constructing a crematorium in the GP jurisdiction. Owing to stiff resistance from the public, the crematorium was not built."