Sunday’s violence at the site of a funeral centre for Covid patients at Aamjhar panchayat of Baliapur block brings to the fore the urgent need to revive the electric crematorium built on the banks of Damodar river way back in 1997.

Built with funds from an array of private and public sector companies at a cost of Rs 55 lakh, the electric crematorium has been lying shut for over 15 years now.

Executive officer of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) Md Anis, who visited Baliapur recently and also took a look at the defunct crematorium, said, “We found that the boundary wall of the old DMC crematorium had collapsed. The machinery was dilapidated. Even though there is no immediate plan to revive it, we did carry out an assessment.”

Local residents, led by president of Jharia Chamber of Commerce Amit Sahu, however, echoed the sentiments of the people when he demanded the revival of the facility. “At a time when Dhanbad corporation is making so much investments on beautifying crematoriums and graveyards, it should also work towards reviving the defunct electric crematorium.

The electric crematorium was established on the initiative of the state urban development department in 1997 with financial assistance of various companies, including Tata Steel Jharia Division (Rs 10 lakh), Bharat Coking Coal (Rs 15 lakh), Steel Authority of India’s Chasnala unit (Rs 10 lakh) and Bokaro Steel (Rs 10 lakh).

The location was specially chosen, the banks of the river Damodar at Mohalbani, keeping the Parvati Ghat crematorium of Jamshedpur on the banks of the Subarnarekha in mind. The Mohalabani crematorium has a waiting hall, two toilets, equal number of bathrooms, besides a generator to run the crematorium in case of power failure.

But the Mohalbani crematorium was in operation for barely six months as there was a dispute between the companies, including SAIL, Tata Steel, BSL and BCCL, over who would bear the electricity costs. For, the Rs 411 fixed as charges for cremating a dead body was hardly enough to meet the total expenses of running and maintaining the crematorium.

The issue was sorted out in 1998 and cremations resumed. But soon another controversy stalled operations. Family members of Gaur Chandra Bauri, a local resident of Bagdigi, ransacked the crematorium on October 8, 2008, accusing the staff of organ smuggling.

Then operated by Mineral Area Development Authority (MADA), the issue wasn’t resolved and the crematorium remained closed seven years amid more protests by residents of adjoining areas.

The crematorium was back in operation again on December 22, 2005, due to the efforts of then Dhanbad deputy commissioner Bela Rajesh. But it had to be shut again on December 31, 2005, after the machinery developed a technical snag.

Despite several reminders to MADA no step was taken to repair the machine. Finally, the crematorium was shut down on in January 2006.