Wednesday, 11 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Indian Christian Council (ICC) has written to the Uttarakhand Government against establishing electric crematoria at two Christian cemeteries in Dehradun. While addressing media persons at the Press Club on Tuesday, the president of the council Carol Alick Rogers stated that a nominated Anglo-Indian member of the legislative assembly (MLA) has approved of setting up an electric crematorium at a Christian cemetery in Chandernagar and at the newly allotted land for a graveyard in Arcadia Grant in Dehradun. “Using electric crematorium to do the last rites of a dead person is against the religious sentiments of the Christian community. Nobody even discussed this with our community,” stated Rogers. He said that the authorities should set up such crematoria at other cemeteries where people are not buried under the ground. We have written about this issue to chief secretary Sukhbir Singh Sandhu besides Dehradun district magistrate R Rajesh Kumar and municipal commissioner Abhishek Rohela mentioning that this is against the beliefs of Christians, informed Rogers.
He also alleged that the treasurer of the Chandernagar cemetery charges different amounts to different people as per their wish for digging the graves and at times has refused the burial of some people- which is also known to the nominated Anglo-Indian MLA. The members of the council have demanded the financial report of the last 20 years and the dissolution of the old committee with the formation of the new one under the city magistrate.
