Landlord denies access to crematorium; differences with villagers during elections

TIRUPATI: In a shocking incident in Kothapalem village of BN Kandriga mandal in Chittoor district, a family that differed with other villagers during the sarpanch election has denied permission for a deceased’s family to hold a funeral procession through their land to the village graveyard on Tuesday.

Photographs and a video of the incident surfaced online on Wednesday.

“Villager Muthyalamma (65) died due to ill-health. The path to the village graveyard starts from a small piece of farmland owned by a family. They did not allow Muthyalamma’s relatives to take the body through their land. This led to a protest by the deceased’s family, which then kept the body on the road for some time in a protest mode. The issue was sorted out later,” said K. Ganesh, tahsildar.

According to him, there were two graveyards in the village; one for the SCs and other for the general public. While the SC graveyard had good road access, the general graveyard had to be reached by this path, which was being used by the villagers for the past five or six decades.

The family that owned this piece of land erected a fencing around the farm land and blocked the path for the funeral procession. They did this because of some differences they developed with the villagers during the recently concluded sarpanch elections.

“On being informed, we (revenue and police officials) rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters. We spoke to the landlords and convinced them to clear the path for Muthyalamma’s relatives to continue the funeral procession. The funeral was held peacefully,” the tahsildar said.

“The family agreed to give some land to erect a passage to the graveyard. However, they told us to first convince all the other landlords who have lands along the passage to the graveyard, to also give some land for the purpose. We have convened a meeting with the landlords”, he added.