THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cemeteries at Pattoor will remain a stumbling block in the development of the Airport-MLA Hostel Road. The stay secured by the Pharmacy Council Employees’ Union (PCEU) against the construction of vaults on the compound of the cemetery of the St Joseph Latin Catholic Church, Palayam, will be a blow to the development plans.This paper had earlier reported on the protest raised by the PCEU members against the construction of vaults on the compound adjacent to the building of Public Health Laboratory (PHL). They alleged that the construction was too close to the PHL building and was a violation of norms.The High Court had accepted their plea and had stayed the construction of the vault last month. The PCEU had even questioned the decision to construct vaults in the city limits.As a compensation for demolishing the cemetery at Pattoor, the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) had agreed to pay a fair amount and had also agreed to construct vaults for the St Joseph Latin Church and St Thomas Marthoma Church. As many as 500 corpses need to be shifted from 23 cents of the cemetery belonging to the St Joseph’s Metropolitan Cathedral. Corpses on the 13.5 cents of land of the Marthoma Church too need to be replaced for the Airport-MLA Hostel Road. “The construction of vaults and retaining wall for the Marthoma Church is progressing, while the construction for the St Joseph Latin Catholic Church has been stayed,” KRFB project engineer Madhavan Pillai said. The issue of demolition of cemeteries has been stalled for almost six years now. It was after long discussions with the KRFB that the churches finally agreed to demolish the cemeteries. Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram Latin Archdiocese Soosaipakiyam had laid the foundation stone for the construction of 1,000 vaults for Pattoor cemetery back in April. Until the stay is lifted, the stretch will remain a narrow road.
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