Barari Ghat's Sole Electric Crematorium Gathers Dust for 8 Months; Municipal Corporation's Apathy Imposes Heavy Financial Burden of Last Rites on Poor and Destitute Families
Bhagalpur : An intensely shameful and harrowing facet of systemic callousness and administrative indifference has surfaced in Bhagalpur, a premier city of Bihar. Situated on the banks of the sacred, northward-flowing Ganga, the historic Barari Ghat houses the district's sole electric crematorium, which has remained completely dysfunctional for the past eight months. The padlock clamped onto its main gates following a technical glitch in the machinery has remained unremoved to this day. Although the issue has been raised repeatedly in the Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation's general board meetings and standing empowered committees with grand claims advanced, only paperwork is being moved under the guise of repairs on the ground. The direct and heaviest toll of this administrative negligence is borne by poor, laboring, and middle-class families for whom ensuring a dignified cremation for their departed loved ones has now transformed into a massive financial crisis.
(Rusted Machinery and Hanging Padlocks)
Barari Ghat serves as the primary cremation center not only for the Bhagalpur district but also for several surrounding districts (including Banka, Munger, and Khagaria). Dozens of bodies are brought here daily for last rites.
Machinery Reduced to Scrap: Approximately eight months ago, the coil and chimney of the electric crematorium developed defects. Initially, authorities claimed it would be repaired within a few weeks. Yet, months have elapsed without repair work ever commencing.
Staff Absent: With the crematorium shut down, the personnel deployed there remain absent. Lacking upkeep, the entire premises is progressively turning into ruins and scrap.
Families Return Disappointed: When destitute or impoverished families arrive at Barari Ghat carrying the body of a relative in the hope of conducting last rites at low cost in the electric crematorium, their hopes shatter upon encountering the hanging padlock.
Cremation Becomes a Nightmare for Poor Families (The Arithmetic of Financial Burden)
The closure of the electric crematorium has dealt its heaviest blow to the stratum of society dependent on daily wages:
Exorbitant Costs of Traditional Cremation: While an electric crematorium facilitates cremation for a nominal fee of just ₹300 to ₹500 (or often free of cost), traditional wood-based cremation now incurs a heavy expense ranging from ₹5,000 to ₹8,000.
Inflation of Firewood and Materials: Firewood currently sells at the ghat for ₹800 to ₹1,000 per quintal. A standard body requires at least 3 to 4 quintals of wood to burn. Additional expenses for ghee, sesame, the traditional Dom Raja fee, and ritual materials add further to the total.
Poor Relatives Forced into Debt: Numerous cases have surfaced where families from slums and daily-wage laborers were compelled to borrow money at steep interest rates from local moneylenders to fund the final rites of their loved ones. Compounded by the grief of bereavement, this financial blow is proving unbearable.
Municipal Board Meetings Echo with Empty Issues, Actions Zero
At the root of this entire problem lies the lax attitude and bureaucratic red-tapism of the Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation:
Paper-Filling Exercises in Meetings: Over the past eight months, several board meetings of the municipal corporation took place. Numerous ward councilors raised this issue forcefully. On every occasion, the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner offered assurances that tenders for repairs were being issued or notices dispatched to the concerned agency, yet not a single brick has moved in reality.
Tug-of-War Between Agency and Corporation: Sources indicate that a dispute over pending payments and technical terms persists between the municipal corporation and the agency entrusted with its maintenance. The urban poor of the city are paying the price for this tug-of-war.
Height of Insensitivity: Such a lackadaisical approach by the local administration on a sensitive and unavoidable subject like death proves that they possess little genuine concern for ordinary citizens' hardships.
Severe Adverse Impact on the Environment
A major objective behind establishing the electric crematorium was environmental conservation and keeping the Ganga pollution-free, an aim that now stands entirely defeated:
Indiscriminate Felling of Trees: Dozens of bodies daily require tons of firewood for traditional cremation, which directly impacts tree felling and greenery.
Increase in Air and Water Pollution: Smoke rising from funeral pyres has elevated air pollution levels dangerously around the ghat. Furthermore, due to shortages of wood or poverty, partially burnt bodies are frequently released into the Ganga, heavily polluting the holy river's waters.
Widespread Resentment Brewing Among Social Activists and Locals
This dilapidated state of Barari Ghat has fueled immense public anger against the municipal corporation among local social activists, voluntary organizations, and ordinary citizens:
"Suffering in Life, Denied Peace in Death": Expressing outrage, several visitors at the ghat remarked that while the government boasts of distributing free rations to the poor, when a poor person dies, they fail to secure even two yards of shroud and a dignified funeral pyre.
Warning of Agitation: Several local organizations warned that if the electric crematorium is not repaired and made operational within the next 15 days, they will besiege the municipal corporation office and stage fierce protests.
The electric crematorium lying shut for eight months at Barari Ghat in Bhagalpur is not merely a matter of malfunctioning machinery; it symbolizes the deadening insensitivity of our system, which remains blind to the tears of the poor. Ensuring a dignified final farewell to any individual after death is a fundamental human right. The time has arrived for the District Magistrate (DM) of Bhagalpur and the state's Urban Development Department to take suo motu cognizance of this matter. Bypassing municipal red-tapism and contractor disputes, emergency funds should be utilized to make this crematorium operational without delay, sparing impoverished families from sinking beneath the weight of debt while safeguarding the environment.
