The perennially paralysed parks in the city have failed to serve the basic utility of providing amenity spaces to residents.
Several parks are opened only in the morning and evening, while many others have turned into den of hooligans.
Some like the AG Colony Park and Krishna Nagar Park-2 are open only for a few hours in the morning and evening - normally 5am-8am and 4pm-7pm. Those who look after these parks attributed the daytime closure to security and maintenance issues.
A few others such as the CID Colony Park though remains open the entire day, people residing near it claimed that either hooligans engage in gambling or in obscene acts.
City-based doctor and social activist Ratensh Choudhary recently faced a harrowing experience at Shastri Nagar Park. 'When I went to the park in the afternoon with my wife, the guard told me that the park is open only in the morning and evening. Later, another employee started an argument with us and I realised that he was drunk. Thereafter, I visited the nearby CID Colony Park and found the same situation. I raised the matter in front of a senior police officer but no action was taken in this regard,' said Choudhary.
Similar issues were raised regarding the mismanagement at the park on Road Number-3 in New Patliputra Colony.
'Though the parks remain closed during the daytime, we often see young couples trespassing it illegally and indulging in obscene activities by hiding behind the bushes. The guard simply sits in his cabin,' said Ramesh Prasad, a resident of New Patliputra Colony.
Ashok Kumar Jha, the security guard at CID Colony Park, said hooligans ran away with the lampposts and even assaulted him when he tried to stop them.
'They thrashed me when I tried to stop them from stealing the lampposts. Now, soon after sunset, the park slips into darkness and hundreds of gamblers create nuisance at least till 10 in the night,' said Jha.
Most parks in the city have been developed by different government agencies such as Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited, rural works department, National Rural Employment Programme and Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation among others.
Normally, once the government agency completes the development work of the park, it is handed over to the cooperative society of the vicinity. At times, even the societies are not able to look after the parks properly mostly because of financial constraints. As of now, there is no system of entry tickets at the parks in the city.
Social activist Choudhary raised strong reservations against the authorities for neglecting the parks.
'Apart from providing a peaceful place for people to get away from the hustle and blare, parks also provide numerous physical and psychological benefits to residents. Lakhs and crores of money are spent in developing the parks but all go waste because of lack of post-development maintenance and security measures,' said Choudhary.
There is some hope in sight though.
The environment and forests department is in the process of finalising the guidelines for maintenance of the parks not only in Patna but also across the state.
'The draft of byelaws for regulating the maintenance of parks has been finalised and we are in the process of getting the approval on it. While that might take another month, we have asked the Patna divisional forest officer (DFO) to work out the modalities with other agencies for taking over the big parks in the city. Works in this regard would commence from February,' said Vivek Kumar Singh, the principal secretary of the environment and forests department.
