Tension prevailed at a Christian cemetery in Thiruverkadu after Christians in the vicinity noticed on Monday that most of the graves had been damaged during a clean up drive by the Chennai Corporation. Enraged at the damage, close to 100 people staged a flash road blockade on Sivan Koil Street where the cemetery was located.
According to police officials who rushed to the scene, the cemetery sat right next to a Hindu cremation ground and both were located in a 33,000 square feet plot of land.
Recently, the Corporation had ordered the clean up of bushes and weeds to construct a gas crematorium in the centre of the plot, said officials. This crematorium was supposed to serve both the funeral grounds which explains the proposed location. Unfortunately, the protestors claimed, only the graves on the Christian side had been trampled over and completely destroyed by the land movers engaged by the civic body. This caused outrage and resentment among the local Christian community and the issue threatened to blow up into a communal feud till the police intervened. Avadi MLA Abdul Rahim pacified the protestors and assured them that the graves would be restored after which the protestors relented and reached a compromise by late afternoon.
Eventually, the civic body and local authorities assured protestors that they would beautify and hand over a proper and functional burial ground very soon, said police officials. However, some of the protestors demanded a separate burial ground to avoid such issues and the risk of communal problems in the future.
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