RAWALPINDI: Cantonment areas are facing shortage of space in their existing graveyards but the civic agencies are yet to find a suitable place for establishing new graveyards.
Mohammad Kamal, a resident of Westridge Bazaar, said the residents faced problems in finding a space in the graveyards.
He said Racecourse graveyard commonly known as the army graveyard was full and there was no space for new graves and the administration did not allow the residents to bury the dead there.
Muntazir Hussain, of Kamalabad, said the residents of Chaklala Cantonment were facing shortage of space in the graveyards. “There are six graveyards but none of them has a vacant place.”
Land allocated by previous PML-N govt for setting up graveyards is yet to be handed over to civic bodies, elected representative says
He said his uncle died three days ago and he had to be laid to rest in a graveyard at Ratta Amral as no vacant place was available in the cantonment graveyard.
The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) tried to get a piece of land adjacent to the army graveyard but later decided to set up a slaughterhouse on it, he added.
A senior official told Dawn that the RCB had formed a committee to find a suitable place for the setting up of a new graveyard. The committee neither met during the last two years nor its members visited any place.
He said the civic body had allocated funds for the purchase of land for the graveyard but no work could be started.
On the other hand, the Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) failed to cater to complaints about shortage of space in its six graveyards, including PAF, Harley Street and Alif Shah graveyards.
When contacted, CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz said the previous Punjab government had allocated a piece of land in Rakh Dhamial for the setting up of graveyards in Rawalpindi. However, the local administration is yet to hand over the space to the civic bodies of the cantonments.He said a mosque, streets and funeral prayer sites had been constructed in the Rakh Dhamial graveyard.
“I visited the site and checked the development in the Rakh Dhamial graveyard which spreads over more than 1,000 kanals. The previous PML-N government had issued a notification to allocate the site.”
He said the government should direct the district administration to hand over the share of the cantonment areas to the RCB and CCB so that they could further develop the graveyards.
Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2018
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