City has no gardeners for 270 parks

Ludhiana: With the city already lacking green spaces, the civic body is falling short of gardeners to manage the existing green area. There are 870 public parks in the city of which over 600 parks are being managed by the park management committees. But for the rest of the parks, there is not adequate staff.
Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar also raised the issue of shortage of gardeners during the MC general house meeting on Monday.

Against the total sanctioned posts of 648, there are only 203 gardeners with the department and 69 are working in other branches. As many as 376 posts are lying vacant and more vacancies will be created as the existing staff will retire.

There are 870 parks, of which 614 are given to the PMCs, but still 256 parks are being maintained by the MC. Apart from this, 76-km long central verge is also there. The officials claimed that they were unable to handle these parks and this was the reason that some of the parks were lying abandoned.

In the house meeting, Congress MLA Talwar said there were 123 gardeners in his east constituency and there was not even a single gardener appointed for the parks. He said the parks were crying attention, but the MC officials were not bothered about the same.

Meanwhile, Karamjit Singh, a resident of Tajpur Road, said: “There are several green belts and parks in the city which need urgent attention and we have never seen any gardener or MC staff doing something for the development.”

He said the MC should pay attention towards the condition of the available spaces.

“The civic authorities are to be blamed for the pathetic condition of these parks,” said Shaveta Bhandhari, a resident of Madhopuri.

When contacted MC commissioner K P Brar about the lesser number of gardeners, she said: “The number is less, but I believe that the residents should come forward for the maintenance of the public parks because they can handle the responsibility better.”

She said they were yet to take decision on whether more gardeners should be appointed or not. They were also trying to pitch in residents.