Two of the city’s most popular parks — Maddox Square and Park Circus Maidan — are in dire neglect.
Piles of garbage have accumulated inside Park Circus Maidan. Despite repeated appeals to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the custodian of the park, the condition of the space did not improve, a morning walker said.
A recently concluded fair at Maddox Square has robbed of its green cover. The signs of devastation from the fair — broken bamboo poles jutting out from the ground, tyre marks of trucks — are still visible. The surface is undulated, indicating that no effort has been made to restore the ground after the fair.
Piles of garbage on the Park Circus Maidan; (right) crushed concrete chunks and brick debris dumped in another portion of the park on Saturday
Visitors to the park alleged that the scale of cleaning needed after a fair is rarely initiated. The ground is left to heal on its own. The variations caused by excavation and the insufficient restoration efforts have lingered over the years.
Visits to Park Circus Maidan over the last month have shown that a portion of the park has been converted into a waste dumping site. This portion lies in the middle, between the Park Circus Seven-point crossing and Dargah Road, of the sprawling park.
“When we were children, this portion had small ponds. It was the most beautiful part of the park. There was a bridge across the ponds and children loved walking on the bridge,” said Mohammad Kalimuddin, a regular visitor to the park and the founder of Park Circus Morning Walkers Welfare Association.
“We have petitioned the KMC multiple times to improve the condition of the park, but they have fallen on deaf ears,” said Kalimuddin.
A KMC official promised to remove the waste from Park Circus Maidan. “We will find out where the waste has been dumped and clean it,” he said.
The Maddox Square ground, where the landmark Durga Puja is held, has remained dirty intermittently for at least the past month. While Maddox Square is a large park with various enclosed walking areas, the ground is the one that is open and where people can play.
A handicraft fair was held in the southern portion of this ground. “While the fair was underway, the portion of the ground where the fair was not being held also remained dirty on many days,” said a visitor to the park.
The fair ended in mid-January. The entire park was littered as late as Wednesday, said the visitor.
When Metro visited the ground on Saturday afternoon, the waste had been removed. The ground, however, was not fit for play.
“There are crushed concrete chunks and brick pieces strewn across the ground. It will make playing on some portions impossible. There are also holes in the ground that were not filled up when the bamboo poles were removed,” said a visitor at the park on Saturday afternoon.
KMC officials have expressed that the civic body is lacking the necessary manpower to restore the surface. There are gardeners and cleaners available, but they do not possess the required training to correct uneven ground, stated a KMC official. “We need to wait for any nearby project or one at the park, at which point we will ask the contractor to restore the ground conditions and level the undulations,” he mentioned.
The weather is now pleasant and conducive to outdoor sports. However, several parks are unfit for games, rued a Calcuttan.