HYDERABAD: Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Principal Secretary, Arvind Kumar, paid surprise visits to three cremation grounds in the city on Monday, to check whether people who had come there to perform funerals were being charged extra. Arvind Kumar visited the crematoriums located in Punjagutta (Nagarjuna Circle), Bansilalpet and Vaikunta Mahaprasthanam in Jubilee Hills.
He also looked into the amenities provided at the crematoriums and checked the electric cremation facilities. The senior IAS officer expressed satisfaction that the prescribed rates were being charged. He stated that GHMC employees had been stationed at the cremation grounds who had gone through the registers maintained by the employees at help desks.
To prevent any exploitation of people coming to the cremation grounds, the GHMC started displaying the official charges by erecting banners and setting up help desks. The rate for conducting the last rites on a funeral pyre using wood is `8,000 and the charge for electric cremation is Rs 4,000.