Cemeteries must be included in city plans

PLANNING for and setting aside land for public cemeteries is an important part of the responsibilities of a local authority. Unfortunately, this matter is often politicised and not properly addressed in many of the local plans in this country.

The Local Government Act 1976 puts the legal responsibility of providing public cemeteries on the local authority. In fact, it even allows the local authority to identify land outside its area of jurisdiction for this facility. (s94 LGA 1976).

Planning and designating cemetery land has to be professionally and properly done, as this is both culturally sensitive and have to meet several locational and site planning criteria. The Federal Department of Town Planning has published guidelines for the planning of both Muslim and non-Muslim cemeteries.

There should be sufficient land allocated for both Muslim and non-Muslim cemeteries in the local plans of the city in tandem with its population growth. Most of the existing non-Muslim cemetery lands were reserved during the colonial period, and have reached critical levels for lack of space. An expedient way is to designate and reserve additional and suitable land next to existing cemeteries as cemetery land wherever feasible.

Local authorities should also go a step further by actually constructing landscape cemeteries as a public and moral responsibility to their ratepayers. Very often, families have to resort to expensive private cemeteries to bury their dead.

It is also an offence under the Local Government Act to bury the dead anywhere other than in designated cemeteries.

It is also common to hear concerns over lack of cemetery land every time a draft local plan of a city is published for public objections and representations. Perhaps local authorities should take the cue and emulate Putrajaya Corporation, which has been progressive in developing a public multicultural landscape cemetery and crematorium for Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and Hindu residents, and also a general cemetery for those of non-denominational faiths.

Perhaps the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry should also implement a development programme providing sufficient funds to local authorities for developing landscaped cemeteries in their respective areas as part of their obligations under the Local Government Act.

It may be incumbent on the respective state planning committees and state directors of town planning to issue a directive to all local authorities to address the need to designate adequate cemetery land for both Muslims and non-Muslims in their local plans.