Says Gurdarshan Singh, former sarpanch of Gobindpura and a Dalit, “Earlier our cremation ground was very far from the village, almost 2 km away in the fields. The old cremation ground set aside for Dalits was closed and converted into a park. Some villages even had as many as five cremation grounds, each for a separate caste group. I made it clear to panchayats that whether they vote for me or not, they will not get funds if this system of separate cremation grounds is not ended,” he says, adding 144 villages in Patiala passed resolutions to ended this practice. No grants were given them for their cremation grounds,” he says.

Source: Indian Express June 09, 2019 23:23 UTC