Sanjib Chakraborty KOLKATA, July 28: It's been three months since the electric furnace for the crematorium ground of Madhyamgram municipality has been completed, but one detail has kept it from being inaugurated and put to use. An unclaimed body is required for the trial run of the furnace, located at Sajirhat near Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas, but there has not been one body available for this purpose. Local residents as well as people from the outside area have been going to Kolkata, even to Basirhat, to cremate bodies. A wooden pyre is available for the cremation here, but there is usually a long queue, so people usually avoid this burning ghat. Local authorities said they are desperately looking for a body, which could be used for the trial run of this furnace. But no such body could be found despite their attempts. They sent their appeal to government hospitals, sub divisional office and other places. But they were disheartened, as none of the officials from those departments gave them any news of an unclaimed body. Mr Mihir Dasgupta, the chairman of the Madhyamgram municipality said earlier they would get some bodies from the hospital. But the relatives of the deceased objected to using those for trial run, waiting to follow religious rituals. "We sent an application for an unclaimed body, but we did not get any response. Letters were sent to the health department and district magistrates but we are still waiting for an unclaimed body,' he said. A senior official from the district health department said that it is tough for them to provide an unclaimed body, because later a relative may claim the body. But they are still looking for an unclaimed body to run this electric furnace here. Mr K Haldar, a local said they also tried to create awareness among the relatives of the deceased, if anybody voluntarily gave the authority for a body to have a trial run. "But people are very sentimental in this religious matter. It seems that people are ready to wait a long time for cremation rather than be interested to donate the body for a trial run of the furnace,' said Mr K Haldar. When this correspondent spoke to a relative of a deceased, he said if they donate the body for the trial run then the soul of the deceased would not rest in peace. "Death is a holy thing to anybody. Therefore everybody wants his relative's last rites to be done in a religious manner. So people don't donate dead bodies for experiments as they think the dead man's soul would not be able to rest in peace," said Mr Madan Laha. People from other places also came here to use the temporary wooden pyre, but there was chaos in this burning ghat following the huge number of bodies that were waiting in line for being burnt. Nearly Rs 1.10 crore money was spent for the electric furnace installation near Madhyamgram at North 24-Parganas. Late Ranjit Panja, former Minister of Parliament donated Rs 27 lakh for the electric furnace installation, and the rest of the amount was collected from the Kolkata Municipal Development Association.