Times
of India: Nagpur: Saturday, 28 March 2015.
The Nagpur
Municipal Corporation (NMC) has failed to provide toilets at 47 of the 83 parks
it has developed across the city. Most of the parks and gardens in the city are
in a bad shape, the NMC's garden department has admitted while replying to a
query raised under Right To Information (RTI) Act by activist Abhay Kolarkar.
Though
toilets have been made available at 36 places, lack of maintenance has rendered
them useless. Moreover, two small gardens have no drinking water facilities.
The NMC has
invested sizeable amount to give a facelift to some of the parks like Ambazari
garden, Shivaji Nagar garden, Traffic Park etc and also developed gardens with
landscaping and amusement facilities. But in most cases, lack of proper
maintenance has turned this investment into a wasteful expenditure.
Traffic Park,
a children's amusement hot spot at Dharampeth, was set up by spending crores of
rupees. The park turned out to be a huge attraction. However, the basic
facilities in this park are being neglected and the toilets are unhygienic. The
play equipment at many parks are either damaged or worn out. Broken iron rails
and rusted steel edges pose a threat to children, say citizens.
NMC allows
felling of 713 trees
Replying to
another query in the RTI application, the NMC's garden department stated that
it allowed felling of 713 trees between January 2014 and January 2015. The
department has admitted that Rs13.78 lakh were taken as deposit from National
Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for allowing it to cut 381 roadside trees
while directing it to plant 1,955 saplings. Similarly, the garden department
gave permission to 17 applicants, including SCZCC and state's public works
department, to cut 332 trees by taking Rs26,81,265 as deposits from them.
185 trees
chopped illegally
Though there
is a provision to recover a fine of Rs1,000 for chopping a tree without
permission, the civic body has not penalized a single person in the 13-month
period. However, it has filed charge sheet against two persons, Jakir Khan
Shabbir Khan and Akeel Ahmed Khan, for chopping trees without permission.
Rs1.59 cr
contract to plant trees
The garden
department also informed that the civic body has appointed a private agency M/s
BVG India Limited to plant 11,440 trees having height of 10-20 feet. The agency
was awarded the work for Rs1.59 crore.
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