Nitish says 74 pc graveyards fenced in Bihar
Patna, July.8 (HS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Monday that fencing of 75 per cent graveyards in the state had been completed and very soon the remaining cemeteries would also be fenced.
Replying to a question in the state assembly, the CM said altogether 8,064 graveyards had been selected for construction of boundary around them and all the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police had been authorized to chose from the identified graveyards that the work on which graveyards should be taken up on priority basis.
He admitted that there were more graveyards as well as dargah in the state which had not been included in the list for fencing. The list was prepared by the home department in consultation with other departments concerned.
“If the legislators are interested to take up fencing work they can do it under the Chief Minister Area Development scheme. But they have to select only those graveyards which are identified in the list of 8,064. The government has already completed fencing work on 75 percent graveyards and very soon the construction of the boundary wall of the remaining cemeteries will be completed,” Kumar said.
During his first tenure between 2005-10, Kumar had concieved the idea of the construction of boundary walls around all the graveyards in Bihar. However, only 8,064 graveyards had been selected for fencing keeping in view of their importance and sensitivity.
Kumar was of the opinion that most of the social tension and clashes taking place were due to controversy over graveyards or its encroachments by anti social elements which sometimes took the ugly shape of communal disturbances. Officials said once the scheme was launched and fencing work started there had been less incidents of social tension.
The scheme, however, met with some resistance during initial days but with the direct involvement of the DMs and SPs the situation could not go out of control and did not take any serious turn.
