Parks turn into breeding ground for diseases in Jaipur

JAIPUR: In the absence of maintenance contract, public parks in the city are infested with overgrown grass, shrubs and bushes after the rains.
This is not only causing inconvenience to walkers, but have also exposed children to many diseases, including dengue.
Taking a cautionary measure, many parents have stopped sending their kids to these parks. However, it doesn’t appear to be a long-term solution.
“The parks in the city have become breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects due to lack of maintenance.We have stopped sending our kids to parks. But, it’s difficult for us to make them sit at home in evenings as they cannot resist playing,” said Vandana Sharma, a resident of Tilak Nagar
Vimlesh Meena, chairperson of garden committee, said, “It is not safe to cut grass during monsoon as possibilities of electrocution are high. To avoid any untoward incident, we have decided to take up maintenance work after monsoon.”
However, as JMC seems to be in no mood to renew or furnish new contract after two months of its expiry, the contractor are adamant not initiate maintenance work, even after extension is provided.
A JMC source said, “More than Rs 60 crore of contractors is pending. Extension has been given, but they are not deploying resources as guarantee of payment is not sure,” he said.
According to sources, since July 20, these parks are left abandoned as there are no workers to look after them. There are 948 parks in the city. These have remained unattended and are in a sorry state with the contractors having taken to the agitation in absence of contract
In the absence of guards, these parks are becoming breeding grounds for anti-social elements. “As the lights are not switched on, many people have started drinking in these parks till late at night. It has also become unsafe for evening walkers,” a resident alleged.
The JMC had also proposed to hand these over to registered residents’ welfare associations (RWAs). However, the proposal has not seen the light of the day, till date. “Only 85 housing societies came forward to take responsibility for parks maintenance. When JMC examined the proposal, majority of members in the society were those, who are running schools and other activities in park surrounding. They wanted to utilised park as additional space after officially becoming a member of RWA,” he said.