N'pada graveyards unprotected, lands grabbe

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  |  | NUAPADA 

Graveyards in Khariar town of Nuapada district are in a shambles due to indifference of the local people as well as the concerned authorities and encroachments by land grabbers.

There are at least six graveyards inside Khariar town and the total land earmarked as Smashan in Government record is about 16 acres. But due to lack of protection and boundary, major parts of the land have been encroached and there is loss of vegetation.

The graveyard located near Tirbandh tank has above nine acres of land, but more than half of it remains under encroachment.

"Hardly one and a half acres  of land is now available; the rest has been converted to farm land by people having land adjacent to the Smashan," says a resident of that locality, who demands a demarcation and planting of trees in smasan.

"Construction of a boundary is necessary to restrict encroachment," he further adds.

The graveyard near Gudel bandh tank has about 90 decimals of land but due to encroachment, the area has shrunk.

Another graveyard with 1.46 acres of land located on the side of the Boden RD road is in a shambles too. People of Gadramunda village and three Wards of Khariar town use the for cremation.

The road side entrance of the graveyard is blocked by illegal constructions. Disposal of waste water and garbage by a liquor distillation unit has turned the smasan waterlogged.

The district authority had allotted Rs 2.5 lakh under Gram Panchayat Development Programme for construction of a shed and sinking of a tube well here in 2016. The work was never taken up as the file went missing.

The graveyards which belong to particular castes or religion have been protected like smasan of the Sahu Samaj or the Kabristan. But the general ones are gradually shrinking.

"A day will come when the dead will not even get a place to be cremated or buried," opines Pratap Pattnaik, who is leading an effort to keep the graveyard near Gudhel Bandh plastic free

and clean.

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