Mayor Chu pushes for establishing Mortuary Management Office
Mayor of New Taipei City, Eric Chu today at the city administration meeting ordered Personnel Office as well as Accounting and Statistics Office to help Civil Affairs Department establish Mortuary Management Office, which would handle tasks such as cemetery management, supervision of mortuary service providers, crematorium improvement, funeral parlor establishment, etc.
Pointing out that New Taipei City currently does not have enough funeral parlors, Mayor Chu stressed the urge to establish funeral parlors in every district. He also recommended using the space in columbaria or cemeteries to set up more funeral parlors.
During today’s meeting, Civil Affairs Department presented a report on improving the mortuary management in New Taipei City. Commissioner of Civil Affairs Department, Chiang Chunting, proposed enforcing burial bans and removal orders on public cemeteries located inside metropolitan areas, tourism areas, and residence areas. These cemeteries eventually will be replaced by parks.
According to Chiang, there is still an excess of columbaria inside New Taipei City and therefore no need to set up new columbaria. In addition, the city government has started the work on moving Tucheng First Cemetery. Jinshan First Cemetery will also be replaced by a parking lot in future to promote tourism.
As to the lack of funeral parlor, Chiang said the Civil Affairs Department would adjust the funeral services fee and launch a “cremation first, ceremony later” campaign to increase the funeral service capacity.
“Because the public generally does not possess a positive perception of mortuary services providers, who often cause problems such as noise, traffic congestion, and littering, Department of Civil Affairs would work with the Mortuary Services Union to enact various measures to regulate service providers in the future,” said Chiang.