Non-payment to contractors keeps new graveyard out of bounds for locals

Residents of Medak’s Kurthivada village forced to perform last rites of kin outside the vaikuntha dhamam

Construction of a vaikuntha dhamam (graveyard) meant for use by Reddy and Vaishya communities was completed in Kurthivada village in Papannapet mandal of Medak district about a year ago, but last rites are being performed outside the premises. Reason? Money matters.

Payment to some contractors who had taken up the job of constructing the graveyard is pending. While a part has been cleared, huge bills are yet to be settled by the government. Sources said the pending amount runs into lakhs.

Given this, the contractors are preventing the locals from performing last rites of their kin at the graveyard, fearing that allowing people to use the premises would ruin their chances of claiming the outstanding dues.

Even on Wednesday, the body of an elderly woman was taken to the vaikuntha dhamam, but lack of access forced her family to perform her last rites in the open space outside the graveyard.

Villagers have urge the authorities to make the facility available to them.

“In the past one year, about 10 persons from both the communities have died and their last rites were performed outside the yard. Those who took up the project and completed it are small-time workers of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi who make a living by taking up small contracts. But they are suffering as their money has been stuck for long, and their difficulties are being passed on to the locals, who are unable to use the graveyard,” Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency member M. Ramesh Goud told The Hindu.