New Delhi: To register his protest against the inordinate delay in the modernisation of a crematorium and to instil confidence among construction workers who feared 'spirits', a Telugu Desam Party MLA decided to sleep in ‘Hindu Smasana Vatika’ at Palakole in West Godavari district on Friday night.
TDP MLA Nimmala Rama Naidu, representing Palakole Assembly constituency, had his dinner at the crematorium and slept on a folding cot. He went home in the morning only to return to the graveyard in the afternoon to oversee the construction work.
“I am going to sleep in the same place for another two or three days. This is to instil confidence among the workers, who were otherwise scared of entering the premises to take up the construction,” said Naidu as was reported by Hindustan Times.
Naidu’s specific complaint was that the construction work at the crematorium was going on a snail’s pace, even though Rs 3 crore was sanctioned for its modernisation more than a year ago.
Before sleeping alone in the crematorium, Naidu told the media that the officials concerned and the contractors did not pay the required attention to giving the place a long-awaited uplift.
Another reason, he pointed out, was that the workers were unable to work as bodies would be burning all the day and half-burnt organs would surface as they dig the soil. They also were scared that ‘spirits’ would haunt them.
That is when the idea struck Naidu to sleep in the crematorium to prove that there are no evil forces and there was nothing to be frightened of.
“I slept in the premises the whole night. And the trick worked. On Saturday, about 50 workers returned to work to resume the construction,” he said and expressed hope that more people would join in the next couple of days.
On being asked if he had faced any difficulty in sleeping in the crematorium, Naidu complained of "too many mosquitoes".
The MLA, who plans to sleep in the crematorium for another two or three days, said he would be "getting a mosquito net for the cot tonight".
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