No child’s play: park ‘costs’ Rs 1.1 crores

The Children’s Traffic Park has been mired in controversy even before it’s second inauguration within five months because of the huge expenditure. The traffic department has so far spent a total of Rs 1.1 crores in renovating the park twice.

The commissioner of police, Mr. P.C. Pande, promised to inquire into the controversial expenditure of Rs 70 lakhs on the second renovation of the Children’s Traffic Park, just three months after it was first renovated and open to the public.

After being closed for years, the park was redone at a cost of Rs 40 lakhs and inaugurated by governor Sundar Singh Bhandari on May 1, 2001. Road Safety Academy, a registered trust, allegedly financed the total cost of the renovation. Then after remaining open for just over two months, it was again closed down for renovation.

The second renovation has been done at a cost of Rs 70 lakhs and the second inauguration will be held on October 2. These renovations were also financed by the Road Safety Academy. Incidentally, the deputy commissioner of police, traffic, Mr. Samiullah Ansari, is the chairman of this academy by virtue of his post.

What has made the matter even more controversial is the fact that the money has been collected by traffic police inspectors, traffic sub-inspectors and other traffic personnel on behalf of the Road Safety Academy. They were seen collecting Rs 4,000 from shop keepers for the renovation of the traffic park and issuing receipts of the Road Safety Academy in the past few months.

Mr. Pande has promised to put a stop to police personnel collecting funds for the park. So far, the traffic police has spent Rs 1.1 crores to renovate the Children’s Traffic Park, twice in the space of five months. Surprisingly, Mr. Pande was unaware of the renovation work going on at the park. He said, "It has nothing to do with us since they have not asked the department for any money."

But Mr. Pande was at a loss to explain or justify another major renovation in a span of just three months. He said, "Since the department’s money was not involved, I had not kept myself informed about the renovation work." Most of the renovation work involves redoing the same things using better materials like more expensive bricks, acid-proof and weather-proof flooring tiles, green granite stone in various places, mosaic work on the walls and landscaping the garden.

Mud for gardening was procured at a cost of Rs 10 lakhs and watering the garden cost the academy Rs 3.5 lakhs. Many plants have been bought from nurseries and new railing and footpath tiles have been placed in place of the three-month-old railings and tiles. A new skating ring is an addition to the park, where children can skate at an expense of Rs 150 a month. The AMC wanted to construct a skating rink earlier, but the suggestion was then rejected by the traffic police department.

Mr. Ansari had reportedly said that most of the building materials such as bricks and cement were donated by the citizens and they were not purchased. But there is skepticism regarding how and where the amount given by the academy was spent. When tried to contact Mr. Ansari, he was not available for comment.

Mr. Pande said that he would inquire into the matter and accepted that any wasteful expenditure was not good. But he added that because DCP traffic Samiullah Ansari was a "young officer," he might have been carried away by his enthusiasm. Meanwhile, minister of state for home Haren Pandya, who was to inaugurate the park has said that he would inquire about the details from Mr. Pande. He said that he was not even aware about any invitation to inaugurate the park.

Republished from The Asian Age