‘Smart City’ Citizen’s Non-Friendly Rs 8 Lac MCC Park in Valencia is NO CLEAN and GREEN?

‘Smart City’ Citizen’s Non-Friendly Rs 8 Lac MCC Park in Valencia is NO CLEAN and GREEN?

Mangaluru: Once a park which was seen filled with adults and kids of the Valencia area and nearby localities enjoying the air and nature, and kids busy playing in the kids play area, has now become a “Horror Park”, where you can hardly see any soul? No children can be seen as the play equipment are all lying unused as it is damaged or is in bad shape due to neglect over months. Once this park used by many for exercise/walk, but at the moment you can hardly see a few senior citizens and young struggling to walk through this dilapidated and messy park. And this dilapidated, not so friendly Citizens park, which is not Clean and Green is none other than Mangaluru City Corporation Park in Valencia-Mangaluru, built at a cost of Rs 8 lakhs in 2008.

The Park is filled with moss and plants. The water pond is filled with stagnant water, where you can see mosquitoes breeding. The pathway inside the Park is blocked by huge blocks of wood, tree branches, from the trees which were cut during road widening in that area. But since months no one bothered to clear this mess from the pathway. Also grass has grown, which makes anyone to walk in the park. The park which used to get visitors in the mornings and evenings, has only a few coming there, said a auto-rickshaw driver, who parks his auto near the Park gate..

A student of Roshini Nilaya speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” Me and bunch of my friends used to have our lunch in this park, and also in the evening after college we used to spend some time in this beautiful park then. But not anymore-we have kept away from this park as we did not feel comfortable there. I have many friends who live close to the park but they stay away from going there. Sadly this park has been neglected, which is sheer waste of tax payers money. This park looks like a jungle, which is scary for women to enter it when it gets dark”

Yet another elderly person taking his morning stroll in the park said,”It’s a shame that we call this a park in this Smart City- looking at the pathetic condition of the park, it seems like we have no Smart People to manage the City, including parks and other recreational places. Our ward corporator Ms Jacintha Alfred when she was MCCMayor did nothing about this park, and even now still as our ward corporator has done nothing either, even after quite a few complaints made to her. Our politicians and district officials only talk about development, but in reality all their assurances are zero. I am a regular reader of Mangalorean.com, and I am glad that you have come forward to highlight this issue”.

Considered one of Mangaluru’s best small park a few years back ,is now in shambles. It had a good walking track for joggers and walkers, and a few things for the kids to play, but everything is in dilapidated condition. Even though the maintenance was very poor then, but now it is horrible. You don’t call this a park at all. There are wild plants growing all over. People should avoid this place for sure. Talk of safety hazard, there are couple of open electric circuit boxes, which is dangerous for small kids while moving the park. When it comes to safety, none of the City officials care about-it’s only after some gets hurt or dies due to electric shock, then only they wake up and rectify the problems.

Even though lots of Money of Smart City project is spent on creating good parks for children and elders in the ’smart city’ as a priority, but sadly the existing parks in the City are neglected and allowed to rot. Apart from this Valencia park, there are quite a few old parks in bad condition in the city. Many a time they are grossly misused and both citizens and officials are afraid to tackle the issue. Now that this Valencia Park is in such a bad shape, no one wants to set their foot on this park. At present, even though it is still a park albeit a neglected piece of fenced land with overgrown unkempt vegetation, dilapidated play facilities and a haven for street dogs-but it is learnt that most of the time it is a den of anti-social elements and activities and a general eye sore.

It’s about time that the concerned people in the MCC taken an initiative in rectifying this Park, and put it back for use, so that the tax payers money of Rs 8 lakh spent on it be worth full one. If our “Smart City” boasts of a number of parks, the tragedy is that none of them are in good shape and are crying for want of good maintenance- and one such much neglected park is this MCC Park in Valencia. Though many people arrive here for walking and a leisure stroll during early morning and evenings, the fact is that right now park does not have a good walkers’ path. To add to the problem, most of the benches here are broken. The park also lacks drinking water and lighting arrangements.

Looking at the present situation of this Park, seems like MCC Officials, including the area Corporator Ms Jacintha Alfred have chosen to turn a blind eye to its pathetic state. It is high time the MCC wakes up to the situation and take steps to give this park a face lift soon.