KOLKATA: Residents living in some parts of north Kolkata on Sunday were shocked to see that dust particles from Kashi Mitra crematoria were flying in the entire area.
Residents of Cossipore and Nimtollaghat Street in particular were worst affected so far as the air pollution from the crematoria is concerned.
Residents eating lunch at their homes keeping the windows open suddenly found flying ash on their plates. The bewildered people could not make out what was happening.
However, the officials at Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Kashi Mitra crematoria knew for sure what had happened. It was fault of an electrical staff there at the crematoria who failed to clear huge amount of ash from the duct of the electric chimney after burning of a body and allowed another body to be burned without cleaning the duct.
After local residents brought the matter to the notice of the crematoria authorities, they asked the crematoria staff to set right the polluting chimney. However, local residents staged a demonstration in front of the crematoria demanding a probe into the incident. The KMC health department special officer Debasis Sen promised action against the person guilty of the incident. "We will have to ensure that such incidents do not recur in future," Sen said on Monday.
