Statues inside Kalinga Kanan in Bhubaneswar (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 6: Security arrangements at Kalinga Kanan, a sculpted green strip developed along the Kalinga Stadium, have become a headache for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation as valuable electrical equipment have been stolen from the area.

Kalinga Kanan, the biggest beautification project through innovative landscaping work, was the result of a public-private partnership project by the civic body with Aliza International. However, after execution of the project the landscaping was lying in neglect and later the corporation entrusted the maintenance to MGM Steel Limited.

However, when the maintenance staff of MGM Steel started executing the work, they faced several problems and informed the civic authorities. The environment officer of the corporation, who visited the spot to have an on-the-spot enquiry, found that goons had stolen the panel board of the submersible pump installed for watering the lawn and plants. On two earlier occasions, the pump was also stolen. Decorative lights around the walking path inside the landscaping site were also found to be missing. As landscaping consists of a variety of rare palm and exotic varieties of plants, the goons were also putting chemicals in the stumps after cutting them.

“Small groups from the nearby slums enter the park by force, creating nuisance and picking quarrels with the maintenance staff of MGM. Generally, these goons enter from the Kalinga Stadium by jumping across its wall,’’ said the environment officer in his report.

He also suggested that either Aliza International should be requested to provide round-the-clock security service at Kalinga Kanan or the civic body should go for its own arrangement to retain the beautification work .

As the goons are entering from the Kalinga Stadium, municipal commissioner Vishal Dev has also written a letter to the Director of Sports in Bhubaneswar to step up security arrangement inside the sports compound so that people cannot enter the Kalinga Kanan area from the stadium.

For the architects who created the beautiful landscape near Kalinga Stadium, the 800-metre stretch of Kalinga Kanan is now a piece of “creativity in ruins”.

Inaugurated on August 31, 2008, on the Local Self Governance Day, the PPP project was perhaps the most remarkable of all the beautification works executed in the capital. It had an engaging landscape design showcasing the state’s forest topography, tribal motifs and lifestyle, wooden sculptures and themes such as the aftermath of green cover loss and process of desertification through innovative landscape planning. The project was executed with an investment of Rs 1 crore.

``Not only Kalinga Kanan, the corporation has also facilitated more than 40 beautification projects in PPP mode in the city, but most of them are lying in neglect. First, the statues inside Kalinga Kanan were not maintained properly and later, the maintenance part was handed over to MGM. But as the goons are creating problem for them, they should be dealt with strictly by the authorities concerned,” said Bijay Mishra, an ecologist.

A consultant of one of the leading sponsors of the projects, said: “After 2008, we gradually realised that there was no interest on part of BMC to continue with the maintenance of the beautification drive, so ultimately we had to quit. Before that, while putting boards on the project sites, there was no mention about the effort we put in. The deliberate attempt to delete the names of the sponsors was also an unprofessional approach.”