A Dalit family in Karnataka’s Tumkur district on Tuesday was forced to bury the deceased father on the roadside because of the absence of a graveyard in the area.
The incident took place in the district’s Durgadahalli district when Timmarajura’s 65-year-old father, Peddaiah, died to an age-related illness, following which the family performed his last rites without any dedicated burial ground in the village, a Hindustan Times report said.
This ultimately forced Timmarajura to bury his father on the side of the road which leads to Thimmanayakanhalli village.
This deep-rooted issue of not having a public graveyard in Durgadahalli has led the villagers to constantly appeal to authorities to allot space for a burial ground.
Even after several numbers of appeals and submissions, an designated graveyard is set to given to the village.
In this given instance, revenue department officials rushed to the spot as soon as they heard news about a burial on the road side.
HK Manjanna, gram panchayat member, Aregujjanahalli, said that they have been trying to secure a burial ground for the past decade, but “neither the officials nor elected representatives have responded”.
He noted that although there are two graveyards in the village, there is no proper route to commute till there, which makes it completely inaccessible for the Dalit community. The gram panchayat official urged the concerned authorities to provide to the burial facility as soon as possible.
Giving clarification on the absence of a graveyard, Tumkuru Tehsildar M Siddesh told HT that the allegation is false, adding that “there are two graveyards in the village, but villagers are not coming to make use of them.”
The said that the two burial grounds are located in Durgadahalli in survey numbers four and 83. He said that each of them measure one acre and one acre two guntas.
The tehsildar on Monday visited and instructed the development officer of the gram panchayat of Aregujjanahalli to take steps towards repairing the road as soon as possible.
Last year, a Dalit family was allegedly stopped by some people from performing the last rites of a relative on an elevated platform at a cremation ground in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna.
Following this, police arrested three persons and the family performed the funeral on a land near the platform.
In the video footage of the incident, a person was purportedly heard saying that the family was not allowed to use the cremation ground’s platform for the last rites.
Police registered a case under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the three arrested persons.
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