Posh colony plagued by stray dog menace

The area lies well fortified against the large-scale civic issues that are prevalent in other parts of the city. Shaswati Das reports. Know your area

The area lies well fortified against the large-scale civic issues that are prevalent in other parts of the city.

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While residents of Gulmohar Park, one of the more plush localities in the city, are happy with most of the work, they feel there is scope for a lot of improvement. Rather than the regular civic issues of sanitation, roads and streetlights, here residents are annoyed with the growing population of street dogs.

"Whenever the MCD people have come to take the dogs, they have been unsuccessful. The MCD claims that they are sterilised, but we still have to deal with the problem," said Amar Dinesh, president, RWA of Gulmohar Park.

Other residents, however, claimed the colony parks are in bad shape. "Most of the roads here are in a shambles and haven't been repaired over the last five years. The parks are in a bad shape and the alleys behind the houses are devoid of any development work," said Anil Pandit, another resident.

Yet, when contacted, the civic agency blamed the residents of "irresponsible behaviour".

MCD's sanitation staff alleged residents dump everything from kitchen waste to construction waste at the garbage dump.

"Our job is to collect kitchen waste. But the resident are irresponsible because everything from horticulture waste to construction waste gets dumped here and then they complain about lack of cleanliness," said a worker, requesting anonymity.

But councillor Arti Mehra maintained that everything within the ward is in order.

"From parking to drainage - everything has been fixed. In Gulmohar Park specifically, all the drains have been repaired. The roads have also been carpeted,” Mehra said.

For the parks within the area that lie unattended, Mehra claims that it is the residents who do not wish for children to play in those parks.