Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 14: Like the boards “house on rent” for the living, one may soon find ads like “grave on hire” for the dead. At least that is learnt to be under consideration of the officials of a Christian cemetery in Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
The reason is that the space crunch has hit not only the living, the dead are equally adversely affected. To overcome the problem of space for the burial of new dead bodies, the Agra cemetery has come up with a suggestion to provide graves on lease for a period of five years. The concept, however, is yet to be implemented.
Under this, the officials are planning not to give a fixed space for burial of dead bodies. Instead, the space will be given on lease for five years after which the ownership shall automatically get terminated.
The cemetery committee sources said the officials have planned to hold a meeting with the community leaders on November 2 to discuss the concept of ‘grave on lease along with other issues related to community service.
A Christian Community leader in Agra said on Wednesday, “It is true that there is a space crunch in cemeteries and new cemeteries are not being created. So, the community is facing difficulties in burials. That is why the proposal for a lease or for a family grave has been pushed forward,” he said adding the community is also being made aware of the changes that may come in the future. “The permanent graves take up a lot of space and are very difficult to move. So, permanent graves may no longer be permitted,” he added.
If the new concept gets implemented the names of the deceased person which are been written on the grave, would in future be written on headstone so that the space could be allotted to another family.
The officials said Muslims too were facing space crunch but because the “Muslim graveyards are quite large, so they do not appear worried yet. Besides, while Christians have only 4 cemeteries in Agra, Muslims have several dozens of graveyards.”
If the concept get implemented in Agra, possibility of it being replicated in other cities and among other communities who bury their dead may become a reality sooner or later.
