CUTTACK: Even though eight months have passed since the cyclone Fani hit the city, the lone LPG-run furnace system at Khannagar crematorium run by Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is yet to be made functional.
The 30-metre high chimney of the crematorium had collapsed while the water tank and shutter of the building were damaged in the cyclone. The two sensors of the furnace system had also been damaged forcing the crematorium to be shut down since May 3.
After much hue and cry, though the broken chimney was repaired at a cost of Rs six lakh, the damaged gas furnace is yet to be restored.
The defunct facility has been affecting people belonging to low-income group who are finding it tough to cremate the deceased owing to the high cost of firewood.
A member of a voluntary organisation said one has to spend around Rs 4,000 on firewood which is hard to procure to cremate a body. CMC Commissioner Ananya Das, however, said an estimated Rs 95,000 has been sanctioned towards the repair of the defunct gas furnace. The repair work assigned to HPCL is expected to be completed within a week, she added.
The civic body had introduced the electric furnace system at the crematorium in 1985. After struggling to bear the electricity bill, the CMC converted the three-decade-old electric unit into an LPG one on January 20, 2017, at a cost of Rs 15 lakh.
The LPG furnace system charges Rs 250 for adult and Rs 50 per child below 12-year-old while BPL and ration cardholders and the unclaimed bodies avail the facility at free of cost.
RDC asks CMC to form panel for waste management
Cuttack: Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), Central Range, Anil Kumar Samal has directed Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to constitute an enforcement committee to monitor solid waste management in the city. Samal issued the order during a council meeting of CMC here on Friday.
The RDC order came in the wake of allegations of gross irregularities in solid waste management in the city. It was alleged that though there was standing order to collect and dump waste materials generated from different localities in the dumping yard at Matagajpur daily, the agencies entrusted with the work are not carrying out their job properly.
The RDC, who is also the administrator of CMC, expressed his discontentment over the delay in repairing the defunct LPG-run furnace at Khannagar crematorium and renovation of Sati Chaura crematorium.