Poor condition of Bag-e-Bahu garden, exposes claims of govt for its upkeep

Poor condition of Bag-e-Bahu garden, exposes claims of govt for its upkeep
Nitesh Sangral (TNI)
JAMMU, Feb 26: While the government claimed on floor of the Legislative Council that it had collected 164.78 lakh as ticket collection from various parks in Jammu province, but looking at the plight of these parks, shows the factual position of the claims.  Though huge revenue has been collected by the department from various parks in the region, but not much has been reinvested in development of these parks.  Surpassingly the amount has been not utilized even for the maintenance and beautification of Bage-e-Bahu Park, which is thronged by thousands of locals and non-locals every month.  It is pertinent mentioned to here department has claimed that are using the money on the maintenance and beautifications of parks, especially the bahu Fort park, but it is in very dilapidated condition.  A visitor Anil Mahajan said that the residents and of the locality particular females visit in daily routine in the Park for feel fresh. Every place is spread the ploy thing and garbage. There is no sweeper to properly maintain the Park and its cleaning time to time.  He further said that he visit of Park last five years but they have not saw nothing new changing. Which is collected money by the concerned authority; it’s properly utilized for beautification of the park. He stated due to this step more visitors visit of parks and generates more revenue.  Rajesh Kumar, a city businessman, says, “Earlier, I used to bring my children here on weekends, as they loved spending time in the lush green environs of the garden. However, its poor maintenance and increasing monkey menace has forced me to explore other options”.  There are hordes of monkeys at the garden and at times they pounce upon the visitors carrying along some eatables. The monkeys have also virtually taken over the play area meant for children and can be seen enjoying slides. “My 10-year-old daughter had a close shave once when a big monkey jumped towards her while she was having some snacks with her friends,” says Romil Kumar.  Small children begging at the entrance also irritates visitors, as they pester the latter for alms and follow them to a distance.  However, the visitors too are at fault, at least on one count. In the absence of any watch and ward staff, some visitors leave behind the leftovers after having snacks or food at the garden instead of discarding them in refuse collectors. Though there are dustbins, more needs to be done on this front.  The toilets in the said garden are in worst condition due to which especially ladies have to face big problem and also some of the water cooler fitted by the authorities are out of order.