New Delhi:
Civic neglect and public apathy has left a 60-year-old historic park dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in the capital, in a shambles.
Located in Kotla Mubarkpur, 'Bapu Park', the only park under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC)that is dedicated or named after the Father of the Nation and opened on his birth anniversary in 1950s, remained a picture of neglect this Gandhi Jayanti.
"For many years, I have seen no Gandhi Jayanti being celebrated on October 2. This year too, there was nothing done either from the civic bodies or the state government to mark the occasion. No one even cared to clean the white statue, let alone garland it," Shekhar, a local resident, said.
A tall, white marble statue was inaugurated by the then Union Home Minister G B Pant on October 2, 1955 under the auspices of a local commemoration committee, the inscription on the pedestal reads.
The pedestal is now scarred with graffiti. Locals complained that life becomes "hellish" during rains when "the entire park and the adjoining entry street is flooded".
"We have not received any complaints regarding people playing cards or gambling in the Bapu Park. But, if there is any such case and people come and report it to us, we will take action on that," Kotla Mubarkpur SHO said.
SDMC already gives a fund of Rs five lakh to each Councillor on park maintenance. It is latter's discretion to use it on one park or spread it over multiple areas, SDMC public relation officer Mukesh Yadav.
Horticulture department also gives separate fund for such purposes.
When queried over the poor condition of the park, Kotla's ward councillor went into a defensive mode and blamed the Delhi Jal Board for the waterlogging woes.
"Waterlogging is not due to MCD's lack of working. The main problem is of sewerage and if the Delhi Jal Board and the local party leader are not helping on that front then what can we do," Kotla Mubarakpur (Ward No 158) Councillor Kusum Lata said.
The Councillor also said that the Bapu Park does not have a "single chowkidar to guard the premises or a gardener to tend to it".
Local Congress MLA Neerak Basoiya, however, claimed that he has brought "special funds from the urban development ministry of the Delhi government to improve the sewerage conditions in the ward which were in much worse conditions earlier".
But, in this tug-of-war, the historic park with the statue sculpted by Gopi Chand Mishra from Jaipur remains a "victim of civic failures".
SDMC PRO Mukesh Yadav suggested that parks under South Delhi corporation are being "developed under a public-private-partnership (PPP) model and this (Bapu Park) too can follow suit, if a written proposal comes from the Councillor or local people".
"I am not fully aware of the situation being reported by the locals but if it is there, it should not have happened. As per maintenance of the parks, we have used the PPP model at several places where RWAs or NGOs or local communities take up parks for maintenance," Yadav told PTI.
"In Defence Colony parks, it is the RWAs who maintain the area. In our West Zone about 300, and in the Central Zone, between 200-250 parks are maintained under such schemes," he said.