'Development' works inside parks!

'Development' works inside parks!
By G Manjusainath, DH News Service, Bangalore:
In the last few months, many trees have fallen for road widening works in the City. It is now the turn of parks. Deccan Herald presents two such cases, where parks almost fell prey to the developmental activities of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).


However, the works have been halted after Deccan Herald contacted Palike officials on these so-called developmental works that would have eaten up some more lung space of the city.

In the first instance, the BBMP initiated measures to set up a ‘help-centre’ in a Children’s Park at Cooke Town on High Street. The help centre was to be on the lines of BangaloreOne.

This decision of the BBMP had agitated the residents of Cooke Town who were all set to fight it out. A woman living in the neighbourhood of the park was quite angry with this work. “It is unilateral and arbitrary decision of the BBMP, who did not even bother to ask the residents whether they really want such an office. We are the people who will be living here, not those officers who decide to establish their office here. After a long fight, we got a park for our children and we will not let this slip from our children,” she said. Another resident of Cooke Town, Srinivas Murthy, also had problems over this move. He said BBMP had chosen a place at Jeevanahalli for this purpose but for reasons unknown the help centre was to be constructed in Cooke Town.

Cox Town

A park at Cox Town in front of the Frazer Town Police Station building faced a similar situation. There, the BBMP planned to build temporary shelters for the workers employed in a fly over project. The park was dug and foundation was laid. Angered by these works, people in the vicinity then decided to protest.

Kalashree, a resident of the area, was quite angry. She said, “This park is very old and was established by the British. There used to be a beautiful garden with a variety of flowers and other decorative plants besides huge trees. Due to the ill maintenance of the garden, the plants have died and the entire park looks like a deserted land.”

Temporary sheds

She added that recently some temporary sheds were built for some other construction works. After the work was over, the waste material was not removed, leaving the park look ugly and dirty.

Jayaraj Reddy, another resident, had one more unconfirmed news that the government wanted to construct residential houses for the families belonging to the weaker section of society.

“If it happens, it will be a conspiracy against the lung spaces of Bangalore,” Reddy said.

BBMP SPEAKS

When asked, BBMP Additional Commissioner Puttaswamy said he would get all the details after a day.
The next day he informed this newspaper that the work has been stopped immediately. According to him, some local BBMP officers might have initiated the works. He also denied that the BBMP had plans to construct residential buildings at Cox Town park. “Some temporary sheds were to be constructed for the workers of a nearby fly-over, for which the plinth was built. The BBMP has stopped construction work at both places - Cooke Town and Cox Town”, he said.