The toilet, with no water and an unbearable stench, is unusable
Walkers point to a broken bench in the garden. Pic/Anurag Ahire
A garden at Azad Nagar in Andheri West is undergoing a welcome facelift. It has broken benches with rods poking out from concrete. The walkway has a couple of loose tiles, which could cause walkers to trip. The exercise equipment is broken and some is missing entirely. There is also a central light that is not working. The toilet, with no water and an unbearable stench, is unusable.
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Now work has finally started in the space. Complaints were ignored, but the ball got rolling after the press began asking why repairs and maintenance were lacking. We need to have officials making site visits to different gardens in their wards regularly so that these spaces are safe and usable at the very least.
While citizens in different areas across the metropolis are fighting to keep spaces open and free, the few gardens that we already have should be cherished as they are precious. This is because there is such a paucity of these open spaces, so the little that we have should be very close to our hearts and a priority for the civic authorities.
We have witnessed some authorities do good work in certain places, enhancing beauty, installing certain facilities and ensuring that the lighting is good, which is linked to safety. Yet we have also seen apparatus and equipment fall into disrepair. Large-scale breakage, pilfering and unsavoury elements encroaching into green spaces. We have also witnessed the theft of public property. Skeletal staff means it is difficult to keep an eye on everything and they may be too stretched to be effective. Staff numbers should be up. Citizens have a responsibility to enjoy these gardens with discipline and respect. Our parks, football-field-sized or handkerchief-sized, are little green emeralds in a grey city. Facelifts, repairs, restoration and preservation mean ensuring that these emeralds keep shining for a people largely starved of green.
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