Government bodies flayed for discrimination at crematorium
By IANSFriday, June 25, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Central Information Commission (CIC) has summoned officials of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for discriminating among sections of society by setting up semi-VIP cremation platforms at the Nigambodh Ghat here.
RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal approached the CIC after both the agencies failed to provide proper plan-map and file-notings on a decision to develop semi-VIP ‘pyre-blocks’ at the capital’s oldest cremation ground.
The Nigambodh Ghat has three categories of cremation platforms — an elevated VIP ‘pyre’, three semi-VIP ‘pyre-blocks’ surrounded by iron railings and the ordinary cremation platforms.
The VIP pyre is used for cremating bodies of senior political leaders and renowned people while the semi-VIP pyre is used for cremating people who have been referred by either some politician or bureaucrat.
The CIC asked officials from the MCD and the DDA to be present before it July 5.
It noted that prima facie it appears that the onus of providing the information has been shifted from one agency to another and both of them provided contradictory information.
“It was indeed shameful that the MCD and the DDA became party to discriminating among people on the basis of their status even after their death by developing blocks of semi-VIP pyre, differentiating them from other pyre-blocks by simply surrounding semi-VIP pyre-blocks by iron-railings,” said Agrawal.
Agrawal said the authorities concerned should immediately remove the iron railing to abolish the distinction between ordinary and semi-VIP cremation platforms.
