Children love spending time outdoors in the summer and parks are most often their favourite hangouts. But in Ramakrishnapuram in Chitlapakkam, the children’s park is barely used by children.
A small park with just a few play equipment and a walkers’ track, it has become a space frequented by tipplers. Residents allege that tipplers often leave the liquor bottles and food waste in the park and repeated complaints to the Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat officials to keep the gate locked after the visiting hours have gone unheeded.
The park timings are from 5.30 to 8.30 in the mornings and 5 to 8 in the evenings.
Salesh A., a resident of Elango Street and a member of Chitlapakkam Rising says he has written many complaints to the panchayat officials to clean the park and maintain it regularly, but to no avail. “I write at least two complaints every month to the panchayat office to get the park cleaned. I even tried to send complaints on Whatsapp to the Chitlapakkam police. I also emailed a petition to the Chief Minister’s Cell last December and the reply said the park was being cleaned every day and is locked every night. But the reality suggests otherwise. It may be a small park around the street corner and it may not seem so important to the officials, but for the children, who don’t have much outdoor spaces for recreation, it is an important space. The apathy towards this space is appalling,” he says.
A notice at the entrance of the park clearly states that children aged above 10 are not allowed to use the play equipment, but we often spot adults playing on the swings and slides in the evenings. The board at the entrance that should bear the name of the park has been left blank for months, he says. “The LED lights at the park have not been functioning for months. Since the gate is always open, cattle too enter the park and make a menace. Plastic cups and covers, alcohol bottles and cigarette stubs and packets are strewn all around the park,” Salesh adds.
Recently, Salesh along with six other members of Chitlapakkam Rising joined hands to clean the park. They cleared the trash and put up a board urging visitors not to litter. However, he found more liquor bottles and plastic cups in less than a week.
A senior official of the Chitlapakkam Panchayat told The Hindu Downtown that neighbourhood parks come under the public-private partnership model and residents too should volunteer to ensure cleanliness of parks. He says the local body does not have enough funds or the manpower to depute caretakers at each park and urged the residents to protect their neighbourhood parks.
He also promised to inspect the park and issue a warning to those who are found misusing the space.