Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 16: A park at Acharya Vihar, meant to be a place of recreation which was inaugurated two years back by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, is now infested with reptiles and insects with weeds and shrubs growing all over, rendering it totally unfit for visitors.
Locals living near the park blame dismal maintenance and upkeep on the part of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the park’s drastic downturn. Several of the locals said they had no idea if the park was still open to visitors or not, while some said the park has been closed for several months.
One of 29 parks in the city developed and maintained by the BMC, the park was opened in 2011 and was inaugurated by then forest and environment minister Debi Prasad Mishra. However, it was later closed and then reopened again in 2013 by Patnaik.
In the past few years, Acharya Vihar has grown at a rapid pace and has become a hub of educational institutions, leading to hundreds of students living in the area. Starved for places to hang out at in the evenings, these youngsters are all the more disappointed that the sole park in the vicinity is closed due to neglect.
“I’ve been living here for four years. I got to enter the park only once and that too when it was newly opened. Now I rarely see it open, and nobody goes there anymore. I hope the park gets a makeover so we can again go there in the evenings to relax,” said Jagdish Das, a student.
From the outside, the park looks beautiful and inviting, but inside it is a different story altogether.
Thanks to lack of maintenance, the grass on the lawns has grown knee-high, and everywhere there are dry leaves scattered around. A transformer sitting adjacent to the gate of the park also lends it a menacing look.
“I used to come to this place to play with my friends when it was a playground. After it was developed into a park, it became totally unusable for us,” lamented Nishant Sarangi, a student of Class VIII.
The unavailability of the park bothers senior citizens too. One elderly person said this park offered them the only place in the area where they could go for walks and yoga. “We were happy that a park was inaugurated in our area but now it’s been closed for ages. We hope it’s opened soon,” said a senior citizen living in the area.
BMC environment officer Bikram Keshari Routray meanwhile attributed the reason for the current situation of the park to lack of manpower. Routray added that they were working to fix the issue.
“A person was appointed as the in-charge of the park. He was tasked with the duty of maintaining the park. But it proved to be too much of a task for one person to look after the entire park. With the existing manpower, we’re helpless but we are going to appoint people soon and will open the park shortly,” Routray assured.
