Fair dealings are getting rare. I, as a Birkirkara resident, have long ago signed, together with many others, a petition expressing our desire and dire need to have a decent burial place in our town for our dead.

Ours is the largest community on the island and one of the few, if not the only to remain without. It seems to me at least that the permit has already been granted but for some obscure reason was later revoked. The reasons given so far seem to be questionable.

Even the Muslims who settled in Malta have been granted a permit next to the mosque. So why should we be deprived? The proximity of dwellings there did not pose any problem, so why should ours?

In this land of continuous haggling, we spend our lifetime trying to get dwellings for our living, are we to waste our time also getting one decent burial place for our dead? I have to take four buses every time I visit one of my dead relatives. A cemetery is not an extravagance, it is a necessity. Authorities take note!