LIT slammed for constructing boundary wall around park

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, June 14

Taking umbrage to construction of a boundary wall around a park opposite market in C block of Maharishi Valmiki Nagar by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), the Council of Engineers (CoE) has apprehended security risk to visitors and demanded that the public money wasted over the construction be recovered from the salaries of officials concerned.

In a complaint to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, with a copy to Deputy Commissioner, who is also the chairperson of the LIT, the CoE president Kapil Arora said the officials of the engineering branch of the trust had committed an act of ‘sheer wastage of public money’ by constructing boundary wall upto around 8 ft (6-ft brick work and 2- ft MS grills) by blatantly ignoring safety norms of parks.

“Not only this, space of entry gates from three sides has also been completely blocked thus depriving citizens of their fundamental right to use public park, an Act against Article 14 and 21 of Constitution of India,” said Arora in his complaint.

Emphasising that public parks ought to be designed after considering the safety of its users and the entire park area should be properly visible from outside both for the safety of its users from any possible criminal activity or wrongful acts of persons with criminal minds. However, the boundary wall of the said park was being constructed in such a manner that there would be zero visibility from two sides.

Arora maintained that with construction of boundary walls to such unsafe height, the park had already lost its aesthetic and architectural view and looked more like a private property from Rishi Nagar Market side roads.

Moreover, by not providing any entrance gate towards two sides of main roads, the LIT officials have restricted the access to the park by the public.

Demanding an enquiry on such negligence and wastage of public money, Arora suggested that the loss to exchequer can be recovered from the salaries of guilty officials and further action be taken against them as per law for the negligence.