Taj corridor is being used as a graveyard

By Brij Khandelwal

Agra: Controversial Taj Heritage Corridor is being used as a cemetery to bury dead children and the newly borns. The sprawling 80 acre platform recovered through dredging of the river bed and refilling of the open space between the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal, was left unfinished after charges of corruption were leveled against former UP chief minister Mayawati whose government was brought down to install Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow. While the ruling party at the centre chose to give a clean chit to Mayawati, the Supreme Court has directed CBI to submit all the details of the investigations along with opinion of attorney general.

Meanwhile, the Corridor continues to be used as a burial ground and a dozens of graves can be seen with the huge stones and boulders used for identification of the graves. "While the corridor lies buried in the debris of politics, the platform is being used to bury dead children, both by Hindus and Muslims," say office bearers of the 125 year old Kshetra Bajaja Committee which manages the Taj Ganj crematorium called "Mokshdham". Dr. Suresh Goyal and Ashok Kumar of the committee expressed deep concern at the alarming pollution level in the river Yamuna, after hundreds of dead children were buried on the corridor platform.

"The unofficial cemetery that's come up on the corridor is a threat to the ecology of the river." The area earmarked for the burial, adjacent to the electric crematorium has no spare place. This compels people to look for alternative site and what better and more historical site for a royal burial than the Taj Corridor which also provides the raw material for the graves free of cost. Heaps of stones at a dozen points come handy to secure the graves," explains Goyal to www.mediabharti.com.

Kshetra Bajaja Committee has already spent over Rs. 40 lakhs to develop the Mokshdham as a beautiful site for the last journey. "The picturesque Yamuna ghat, in the shadow of Taj, camouflaged by dense green cover, is a dead man's delight," according to Bankey Lal Maheshwari who runs a network of water huts in the city.

Since the Corridor in its present state has been orphaned with no official agency willing to take care of what's left behind, local people have been using the site to their advantage. "While children play cricket, guides draw the foreign tourists with all kinds of interesting yarns to narrate, the devotes come a-visiting for a "darshan" and "achman" of the Yamuna waters," explains Pandit Gopi Ballabh Shashtri, a Yamuna bhakt.

"The site of the corridor is clearly an eye sore in such an important tourist area. The central government should take a firm decision about what's to be done with the corridor. Either dismantle the corridor and remove all the debris or develop the site by greening it. How long can government agency ignore the ecological disaster that the corridor is turning into?" asks Sandeep Arora, newly elected president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Agra.

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