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“Everybody deserves dignity in death. But members of the Muslim and the Christian communities laid to rest at these cemeteries are being deprived of even this,” said Father Daman Rodgers, The Church of Epiphany, Civil Lines, referring to illegal dumping of the Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste that blocks the road leading to the graveyard in Sector 58 here.
Two Christian cemeteries and a Muslim graveyard lie at the end of an 18-metre-wide road leading from Golf Course Extension road. With construction waste blocking the only access, mourners have to take an alternative, non-metalled road to reach the site.
The religious leaders of the two communities say that despite raising the matter with the authorities — municipal body, the police and the Deputy Commissioner — for more than two years now, the construction waste continues to be dumped outside the graveyard.
Aslam Khan, chairman, Haryana Anjuman Charitable Trust, said the matter was brought to the notice of the municipality on several occasions as recently as May 5, when a letter was written to the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). However, Mr. Khan says, no action was taken to prevent waste dumping.
“The waste is mostly dumped at night and the tractor-trolleys that dump the waste don’t have registration numbers on them, which makes it harder to track them. Some of these vehicles have ‘Nagar Nigam Gurugram’ inscribed on them, but the municipal body officials deny their involvement in it,” said Mr. Khan.
The Gurugram police said they had warned the tractor-trolley drivers not to dump the rubble at the site after a complaint was received from the Anjuman Trust. The police said they also wrote to the MCG asking them to shift the waste collection point near the graveyards. “It is not a criminal act. The municipal body must address it,” said a police officer at Sector 65 police station.
Mr. Rodgers said the locals opposed the two cemeteries, graveyard, and a cremation ground when the government allotted land for them two decades ago.
The locals approached the court seeking a stay. While the court ordered the cremation ground to be shifted, the cemeteries and graveyard remained.
“Though the land for the two Christian cemeteries was allotted in 2005, we got the possession of one cemetery just a year back due to resistance by the locals,” said Mr. Rodgers.
The parking site for the cemeteries has also been encroached upon by locals, causing inconvenience to the mourners, he claimed.
He said the leaders of the two communities had also requested the authorities to allow them to fence the road to prevent the dumping of rubble. However, they received no response from the authorities.
Ikramuddin, caretaker, Anjuman Baghiya (a Muslim graveyard), said, “They are dumping not just construction waste here, but medical waste as well. It emanates a foul smell. All this waste forces the mourners to reach the graveyard via a bumpy, unmetalled road with heaps of rubble lying on both sides.”
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