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Where?ve all gardens gone?
MOST OF the city?s 742-odd parks are poorly maintained and some of them are encroached by land mafias. Once the city of gardens, it has turned into the city of bushes and encroachments in absence of proper staff and maintenance.
MOST OF the city’s 742-odd parks are poorly maintained and some of them are encroached by land mafias. Once the city of gardens, it has turned into the city of bushes and encroachments in absence of proper staff and maintenance.
For the upkeep of 742 parks in the city, the LMC has 240 gardeners on its pay roll out of whom 20 are head gardeners, putting the figure at one man per park.
What makes the situation difficult is the fact that nearly 100 gardeners have been pressed into service at the residences of various ministers and government officials. These gardeners are posted at different places in the city but perform duty at the residence of VVIPs.
Often, LMC bosses cite the reason of inadequate number gardeners for poor maintenance of city parks, while about 100 gardeners are dedicated to VVIP duties.
“To please their political mentors, LMC higher officials attach us to the residence of various ministers,” said a gardener on condition of anonymity, serving at the Kalidas Marg residence of a minister.
Although the LMC bosses deny the charges, according to sources, LMC gardeners are serving at the CM’s residence, gardens of which should ideally be maintained by staff from the estate department.
About five gardeners are posted at the residence of urban development minister.
Similarly, some former chief ministers too enjoy the free services of LMC gardeners in their official residence. A union minister too enjoys the service of LMC gardeners. Bureaucrats too don’t miss the opportunity to avail of the service of LMC gardeners for their personal lawns.
Nearly all officials of the urban development department are enjoy the services of LMC staff. Some officials of LMC gazetted and non-gazetted too count among those who are depriving city parks of the services of the municipal corporation staff.
Additional municipal commissioner Santosh Kumar denied posting LMC gardeners to VVIP residences. “ We are posting LMC gardeners to official residence of ministers or bureaucrats. But I will inquire if there is any truth in the allegation.
We are trying to maintain all the parks with the limited staff we have, but it’s also for the public to help us maintain the parks. We have leased out many parks to private NGOs on a public-private partnership and nearly 10 parks have been adopted by NGOs and resident welfare societies on this basis. We want them to come forward to help us maintain the parks.”
“LMC within its limited resources can only maintain the park once and hand it over to the resident welfare societies and NGOs can maintain the parks with their resources. We can help them occasionally,” he added.
