Administrator of Chattogram City Corporation Khorshed Alam Sujan visited the Baluardighi Abhaymitra crematorium in the port city on Saturday and assured to start work soon to resolve the long-standing water crisis.
Khorshed Alam Sujan said, “The main crematorium of the followers of traditional religions in Chattogram should not be like this. The situation we have here now is sad; I don't know what happened in the past. CCC councilors and engineers have come here today to do something urgent by investigating everything on the spot, so that the problem of people can be solved.”
He showed the way to solve the problem by constructing a sluice gate in the canal as the water of Chaktai canal caused this water logging.
At that time, local people informed the administrator that they had been burning their bodies in knee-deep water for many years. As the water level rose during the rains, there was no place to keep the corpses brought for cremation. Many times the time of burial had to be determined by looking at the tides.
The locals urged the administrator to take effective steps to resolve the water crisis of the crematorium.
Sujan said, “If our former mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury had existed, this misfortune might not have existed for so long. He used to take appropriate steps for this cremation long ago.”
Private Secretary of Administrator Mohammad Abul Hashem, Additional Chief Engineer Rafiqul Islam Manik, Supervising Engineer Munirul Huda, crematorium board president former councilor Jahar Lal Hazari, General Secretary Vijay Kishan Chowdhury, ward Awami League president Payar Mohammad, general secretary Abu Tayab Siddiqui, Councilor candidates Rumki Sen Gupta, Rafiqul Alam Bappi, Ratan Chowdhury of CCC Puja Committee were present.
Local MP Deputy Minister for Education Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury Nawfel on Friday donated Tk 4 lakh to free the crematorium from the misery of water logging.
The crematorium operated by the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has not taken any effective steps to address the crisis in the last one decade.
Pictures of the deceased standing on his knees in the water and the whole crematorium being submerged in dirty water came up through various media and social media on Wednesday, sparking a new discussion.
There is a large ditch behind the crematorium in Baluardighi area of Dewanbazar ward of the city, connected to Chaktai canal. The entire crematorium a few temples, a wood-burning furnace and a gas-furnace were all submerged.
The crematorium management council claimed that the renovation work could not be carried out as the project was not approved even after sending it to the ministry earlier and the two former mayors Manzur Alam and AJM Nasir Uddin had promised to allocate the bulk.
