They had to throw another log on the pyre ?

when the ...

CNG-run crematoria project runs out of gas

NEW DELHI: Though the Delhi Government's experiment to run public transport on compressed natural gas (CNG) in the Capital might have been successful, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is yet to fulfil its promise of constructing cost-effective CNG-run crematoria across the city.
The civic body had formulated an ambitious project to construct six CNG-run crematoria in two phases. While phase-I is already delayed by more than six months, it has scrapped phase-II of the project. In phase-I, the crematoria were planned at Nigambodh Ghat, Bela Road and Punjabi Bagh, while in phase-II these facilities were to come up at Rohini, Green Park and Sarai Kale Khan. So far, a of total Rs.4.81 crores sanctioned for phase-I, Rs.2.72 crores have already been spent, but the project is far from being complete. It is only at Nigambodh Ghat, where the construction work is still on, a CNG-run crematorium is being operated on trial basis.
"The project was conceived to provide people a cheap mode of cremation which is also less polluting compared with wood. However, the Congress-ruled civic body has showed no interest in completing the project on time. The project should have been dedicated to the people by the end of last year itself, but no one in the civic body knows when it will be completed," said senior Bharatiya Janata Party councillor Vijender Gupta.
Mr. Gupta also alleged that in places like Punjabi Bagh and Bela Road the work was going on at a very slow pace, and just to hide its incompetence, the MCD officials have raised the crematorium building but have neither arranged for CNG nor installed equipment required for cremation.
The BJP councillor from Rohini also alleged that despite conducting field surveys and talking to gas supplier -- Indraprastha Gas Limited -- and wasting public money on it, the MCD has scrapped projects at Rohini, Green Park and Sarai Kale Khan. "In Rohini, I myself had got 2-acre land sanctioned for the project and IGL was supposed to lay pipeline for supplying gas, but now this has also been stopped by the Congress-ruled MCD," he charged. However, Congress councillor and Standing Committee member Brij Mohan Sharma claimed that the work was going on at the three sites and is likely to be completed soon. Stating that the MCD has not shelved phase-II, Mr. Sharma said the civic body was committed to operate CNG-run crematoria in Delhi. "It is more acceptable to Hindus, who do not prefer cremation at electric crematorium. Besides controlling pollution, CNG crematoria are also cost-effective as the electric ones takes a lot of time to heat up, while there is no such problem with CNG. At CNG crematorium, the cost of cremation will be around Rs.500 as against Rs.1,000 that are charged at electric and wood crematoria," Mr. Sharma added.