Seeking land for cremation, villagers place body on highway

Villagers in Beed district of Maharashtra placed the body of a dead woman on a national highway on Friday to protest the administration's failure to provide land for cremation ground.

The protest, which brought the traffic on Dhule- Solapur road -- national highway 52 -- to a halt, was called off after receiving an assurance from the officials.

Manisha Annasaheb Shinde (19), resident of New Nagzari in Georai tehsil, died of an illness on Thursday night.

However, her family could not find a place to perform her last rights as there is no crematorium in the village, said Sanjay Pawar, a local resident.

The village has a population of 800.

The village panchayat had submitted a proposal for crematorium to tehsil officials four years ago and a fresh proposal was given last year, but nothing happened, said Pawar.

"Two months ago, we wrote a letter to various administrative offices. We warned of a protest if steps were not taken to provide a crematorium in New Nagzari," he said.

Earlier, villagers performed the last rights on the side of the highway, but that site was acquired for highway widening, he said.

In the absence of crematorium, people perform last rites on their own land if they have one, he said.

As the Shinde family could not find place for Manisha's last rites, angry villagers took the body to the national highway and placed it in the middle of the road, said another resident, Savitribai Jhakane.

The protest began around 10 am on Friday and lasted for around 45 minutes.

Tehsildar Dhondiba Gaikwad reached the spot with other officials, and requested villages to allow vehicles to pass.

After the administration agreed to allocate land for crematorium, the protest was called off and Shinde's last rites were performed in a place which was allocated temporarily, Pawar said.

Tehsildar Gaikwad told PTI that land for crematorium would be made available within a month.