Manimajra garden is cricket field, residents retired hurt

CHANDIGARH: Park cricketers and footballers are taking over Manimajra's biggest green area from the town's residents and reducing them to spectators. A nearby playground that was developed for multiple games remains in disuse, while the children prefer to trample the beauty of Shivalik Garden.

Manimajra's Modern Housing Complex resident welfare association (RWA) president Colonel Gursewak Singh (retd) has written to municipal commissioner K K Yadav that the morning and evening walkers in the park have to watch out for an incoming soccer or cricket ball, lest they get hit. Even volleyball and badminton players have invaded these lawns and abandoned the neighbourhood playground. "Every day, there are cases where a ball hits a senior citizen who is either walking in the park on sitting on a bench," The RWA president said.

The letter says that the matter was brought to the notice of the horticulture department many times but its officials had declined to evict the players for the fear of retaliation. During a visit to the garden, a TOI team found that its green carpet had worn out, its water body was dying, and its fountains were dead for almost six months.

RWA senior vice-president S C Luthra said: "Shivalik Park is more of a playground than a public garden it was intended to be. Children and young adults use it for cricket and football, not caring if the ball hits anyone who is out to enjoy a stroll. It's beyond even the park's horticulture department workers to convince the children to go over to the playground next door. A walker not expecting a hard ball to come his or her way might get a serious blow someday.

Mahipal Sharma of Manimajra said the senior citizens out for walk were unsafe. "If they try to stop or advise the children, the players turn offensive and abusive. Miscreants take over the park at night. They vandalise park lights, steal toilet fittings, and harass women. The latter have started avoiding sitting in the garden. We need police deployed there in plainclothes to catch the miscreants."

S K Gautam of Manimajra said: "At night, the garden is a den of drug addicts from nearby localities, which makes it even more unsafe for walkers. With no sign of a cop around, the addicts have an open field."