Save Ludhiana's Bhai Chattar Singh Park, residents write to CM

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 5

Residents of Harnam Nagar, Model Town, have opposed the MC’s decision to set up a waste compactor in the city’s prominent Bhai Chattar Singh Park.

Now, members of the Harnam Nagar Residents Welfare Association have written to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh against the MC’s move. They appealed to the CM to save the park.

They said Bhai Chattar Singh Park was the only park in their area where children usually play and elderly go for a walk. Thus, they don’t want to see any waste compactor be set up in the park. The residents said the compactor must be set up away from any residential area and market.

A senior member of the association, Simran Panesar, who is also a school principal, said: “I am a resident of Harnam Nagar and there is only one park in the area for residents. Unfortunately, the MC is going to set up a static compactor there. When talks are held to make a ‘Swachh’ Ludhiana, why the compactor is being set up in the park. There is a need to improve the solid waste management system in the city, but the waste compactor should be set up outside the city and away from residential areas.”

Another senior member and a retired bank official, Vijay Puri, said: “It is one of the oldest parks of the city but always ignored by successive governments. Parks are meant for the public not for setting up waste compactors. We request the Chief Minister that directions be issued to the authorities concerned not to set up any compactor in the park.”

Advocate Kulbir Singh, who is the legal adviser of the association, said: “I want to give a suggestion that the MC must set up the waste compactor away from the residential area, instead of setting it up in the park.”

When the civic body had started the work on a part of the park to set up the compactor recently, some activists had also opposed the decision. However, a senior officer of the MC B&R branch had then claimed that they had got an order from the NGT for setting up a compactor at the park.