Bantala: Residents of Pokatunga village near Bantala in Angul district have set an example by building a crematorium at a nearby ground without any governmental assistance.
“We have been demanding for a crematorium to be built at a government or private cremation ground, but no one paid heed towards our requests,” alleged a villager.
“Though Pokatunga village has a population of 8,000 people, the local Sarpanch turned a blind eye towards our demand and helped build a crematorium near Dhipasahi of ward number-1 which has a population of 200 people only,” he added.
Fed up with the sarpach’s apathetic behavior, the villagers joined hands, collected donations by visiting door to door and constructed the crematorium.
The locals alleged that they have been raising the issue during all Gram Sabhas and Palli Sabhas as it usually gets tough to cremate a body during bad weather conditions.
This year, the panchayat received a sum of Rs 2 lakh for the construction of a crematorium. “However, the Sarpanch instead of building the crematorium in our village, she constructed it at Dhipasahi,” they alleged.
“As there was no alternate way, we collected money from our fellow villagers and constructed the crematorium,” said another villager.
The villagers have expressed their gratitude to Bibekananda Pradhan, Gautam Dehury and Bhabagrahi Dehury under whose supervision, Dinesh Dehury, Prafulla Pradhan, Prasant Samal, Jayant Sahoo, Dushmant Dehury, Gandhi Pradhan, Ranjan Sahoo, Binod Pradhan, Durlabh Pradhan, Suresh Dehury, Sarat Sahoo and Manoj Pradhan collected donations for construction of the crematorium.
Local Sarpanch Rinarani Pradhan said there is a lack of adequate space for the construction of a crematorium. Therefore, the same was built at Dhipasahi. The grievances of the villagers will be addressed in the coming days, she said.
PNN