E Arun & Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Apr 22: There is perhaps no peace for those, who are resting in peace at Prothrapur graveyard. The Graveyard, situated behind the Govt. School in Prothrapur, has become a place to attend the nature’s call for labourers and homeless people. The aroma of human waste is so strong inside the graveyard that those who are resting in peace are perhaps getting restless.
“Every morning one can see dozens and dozens of labourers entering inside the graveyard to attend nature’s call. They have made the place so dirty that there is no place even to walk. One can even see people sitting on the grave or other open areas, shamelessly. Pity that we have forgotten to respect those who are no more with us,” a prominent citizen of Prothrapur told Andaman Sheekha.
Prothrapur is a growing industrial area and a hub for stone crushers. The workers of the stone crushing units and other industrial units do not have proper toilet facilities and because of this they look for peaceful place to attend the nature’s call. The graveyard, obviously is perfect place for them.
“The relatives of the dead and the residents of the area are extremely hurt with the situation out there at the graveyard. The relatives of the dead when they visit the resting place of their beloved, feel really bad to see the place filled with the human excreta and people sitting near the grave sites attending to nature’s call,” said the resident.
There is a need to make it mandatory for all the Crusher Operators and Owners of all industrial units to provide toilet facilities inside their own campus. Without this, the Administration should not issue license for commercial activities in area.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mrs. Madhu Lall, Pradhan, Prothrapur Panchayat and informed her about the problem, she said that she has not received any complaint about this till now. When she was asked that is there any proposal for fencing the graveyard, she responded that the proposal for the fence of the graveyard in under the MGNREGA plan for the year 2013-2014 which will only start after the end of April this year.
When Andaman Sheekha mentioned about constructing public toilets, she said that socio economic survey has been conducted recently and some news of release of funds for toilets have been received and it will be constructed soon.
