Panjim is bestowed with plenty of gardens, big and small, with manicured lawns, chunky concrete formations, playgrounds and jogging tracks but a visit to the gardens across Goa’s capital highlighted why the city cannot be called a garden-friendly city.
What used to be a popular children’s playground and hangout for senior citizens, the Caranzalem Park, is now being abandoned by the people due to its battered condition. Parts of the Jungle gym are broken, the swings are missing, the bars are rusted, the merry-go-round is buried into the ground and the slides have holes. Parents are reluctant to send their kids because the playground is falling apart and is a threat to the children playing on them. The security guard claims that due to the appalling state of the park, the number of visitors has reduced significantly.
CCP was to restore the park and change the play equipment but the issue still remains untouched.
There are no toilets or drinking water facilities available in the garden. Due to an insufficient number of waste bins, plastic wrappers and empty bottles are thrown around the park. The lack of toilets forces parents to make their children urinate out in the open.
“Local children climb over the walls and enter the park when it’s closed. It’s difficult to get them to stop,” says the guard. For most of the day, the park remains closed but opens to the public at 4 pm. The small walls defeat the purpose of a gate, making it easy for anyone to enter even when the park is closed.
“It’s not just about the dangerous equipment. It’s also the matter of security of the children. People can be found drinking alcohol outside the park during the evenings. At least the other parks are well maintained and comparatively safer,” say concerned parents.
It’s not just the Caranzalem Park that lacks basic public facilities like drinking water. The Joggers Park at Altinho is well-maintained and extremely big with ample of space for people to jog and children to play but surprisingly there is no drinking water facility available.
“The entire purpose of the park gets defeated when tired joggers don’t get water to drink. If providing a drinking water fountain is not possible then they should at least have a kiosk which sells water,” says Michael Paul, a local. The entire park has only one toilet and people have to walk all the way from one end to use it.
The Bhagwan Mahaveer Bal Vihar Park looked after by the Forest Department, is a cut above most of the parks. It is equipped with well-maintained playgrounds, benches to sit and plenty of space to jog. There are toilets present close to the children’s playground and the Forest food court.
Panjim city has plenty of gardens and a great deal of money goes into maintaining them but without basic facilities, the manicured lawns, statues and other aesthetic features seem trivial.
