Lost glory: apathy chokes landscaped lung space

PARKS IN DANGER
Lost glory: apathy chokes landscaped lung space
The Times of India

Bangalore: Have neighbourhood parks turned into ‘addas’ for local goons, and the ‘timepass types’? Despite the BCC spending some Rs 25 crore on maintenance of parks, the responsibility of their upkeep which citizens have been entrusted with, has been razed to fine dust.

Hema Rangan keeps her house shuttered all the time. Not just to avoid heat and dust, but also to blank out noise from her neighbourhood park.

The park in question is located between 17th F Cross and B Cross on 7th Main, Indiranagar 2nd Stage. Residents, mostly senior citizens like Rangan (who is 65) and retired people, say it is one of the city’s oldest and was inaugurated by Indira Gandhi in the late 60s.

Today, however, the park bears none of its former glory. Neighbourhood louts have now made it their hangout, residents say.

“Young men play here all day though there is a playground in Murphy Town for them. At night, they get drunk, use the park as a toilet and I hear that they also do drugs,’’ says Rangan.

The feisty old lady lives alone but fights with the men almost every day. “They make fun of me and I worry that they will break my windows one day,’’ she despairs.

G. Siddaiah, (65) secretary of the Indiranagar Welfare Association, says: “The area corporator’s husband gets things done, but he ignores our pleas. Indiranagar has a rich history of parks, one in 1st stage hosted cultural programmes and this one was begun as a childrens’ park.’’ Siddaiah says they have complained to the police, BCC officials, the corporator’s husband, and even tried to reason with the young men who haunt the park — nothing has worked.

The city has 491 small, medium and big parks of which the BCC has developed 252 as of now. In the last few months, swish looking parks with landscaped gardens, fountains, jogging tracks, disabled-friendly entry and exits, have been developed. Sample the ones at Sanjaynagar, Vijaynagar (J.P. Park), Prashanthnagar (Siddharooda vana), West of Chord Road, Sampige Road, Mariappanapalya, simply for the stature of the too-good-to-be true lushness. And contrast them with the unkempt ones described earlier.

Says a BCC official in the horticulture department: “We do our best to maintain and rejuvenate these parks. If people don’t think it is for them and use it as a dumping yard or for unlawful activities, how can we maintain them?’’

Under the Janodhyanavana scheme, this year’s budget has an allocation of Rs 20 crore for maintainence of parks. A major chunk of this money, is alloted for fencing of all parks, supposed to start after concurrence from DC (estate).