Amidst the hustle and bustle of political activity in Upper Assam's Titabar, which is chief minister Tarun Gogoi's constituency, a children's park with a defunct toy train set up three years ago remains closed as the town committee does not have the funds to maintain it.
Titabar, which has been a cakewalk for Gogoi since 2001, is witnessing a high voltage political drama with BJP state top brass - led by state president and chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal, who is also Union minister of state, visiting the town several times recently, with the party fielding Jorhat Lok Sabha MP and youth leader Kamakhya Prasad Tasa.
The park, built on an over a one- bigha plot of land near Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex - where political rallies are often held with even Gogoi in attendance - has remained closed since a year of its inauguration. An entrance fee was charged from visitors to maintain it.
Official sources said the Titabar Town Committee, with a fund of Rs 15 lakh allotted from the Twelfth Plan, had set up the park, which according to the plaque near the entrance, was inaugurated by former Union minister and then Jorhat MP Bijoy Krishna Handique on October 3, 2013.
Sources said the main attraction of the park was a colourfully designed toy train, which was reportedly procured at a price of Rs 7 lakh. The train that ran on electricity, has four bogeys with a capacity of carrying 20 people to run on a 100-metre track which was laid for the purpose.
Two merry-go-rounds, two slides, three swings, two designed umbrellas over concrete benches, several decorated dustbins and fancy lights were set up in the park for children's amusement.
Sunmai Gogoi, a former state-level athlete who now runs a kiosk near the park, said the train went out of order within a year, which led to the number of visitors going down drastically. Eventually, the park closed down.
Rajesh Kumar, owner of a makeshift tea stall nearby, said sometimes people from outside Titabar coming here want to visit the park but cannot enter as the gate remains closed.
Kuldev Pandit, a grass cutter, said he regularly climbs over the boundary near the park gate to cut grass for his cows and also sells the remaining to other cow owners.
The sources said a fall in revenue collected from entrance fees and poor revenue collection by the town committee as quarterly tax from citizens and from permission granted to construct houses and commercial buildings was "very low" and therefore, the park could not be maintained. A guard and two other staff were assigned to the town committee office.
The chairman of the Titabar town committee - which has been under Congress domination since the first ad hoc committee was formed in 2006 - Abu Nashir Ahmed, admitted to The Telegraph that the committee does not have sufficient revenue to run the park.
Stating that the park had closed down before the present committee got elected (early 2015), Ahmed said there were outstanding electricity bills amounting to over Rs 4 lakh and a substantial amount was required to repair or re-install the toy train and fix other playing tools.
"Without the train or any other attractive amusements visitors will not pay an entrance fee. We are trying to engage a professional firm to prepare an action plan under which beautification, along with some attractive features, can be undertaken to make the park a financially viable project," Ahmed said.
He said since the new committee assumed charge, the Centre had stopped various 90:10 funding schemes, resulting in the state government not being able to sanction funds to civic bodies. Ahmed said the civic body is a new concept for residents of Titabar and hence, people are yet to develop the habit of paying taxes regularly and so the revenue collection was very low.
