The small park around the historic Clock Tower is in miserable condition. The park is lying in utter neglect and the authorities responsible for renovating the park appear busy making excuses.
The railing around this park is broken at many places, but has not been repaired for quite some time now. The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) is responsible for its maintenance work, but the officials blame FRI and other departments for the delay in the development of the park. When asked about this, the Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli said that the matter is still under discussion and officials are trying to resolve the issue soon.
He stated that currently, Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, Ashok Kumar is holding the file related to the Clock Tower park and he is the only official authorised to pass any decision on the same. A team of scientists from Forest Research Institute (FRI) conducted an inspection of the Peepal tree adjoining the Clock Tower in May last year after which the Mayor had then stated that FRI scientists and department officials had said that the tree had become hollow from the inside which had made it weak and liable to collapse.
Since public sentiments are attached with this tree some other means have to be sought to facilitate beautification of the Clock Tower without removal of the tree, Chamoli had said then. Meanwhile, AP Sundriyal, Executive Engineer at MCD stated that the officials at MCD are still waiting for the inspection report from FRI. Any further development work could only be initiated after the inspection report is received.
Contrary to this FRI scientist (G) NSK Harsh, said that the report of the inspection of the Peepal tree had already been sent to the divisional forest officer last year. When asked about this report, DFO Sushant Patnaik said that he had not gone through the report and would most probably read it by next week. Till then he couldn't reveal any information about the inspection report, added Patnaik.
Meanwhile, Additional Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (AMNA) at MCD, Uday Singh Rana, said that a proposal worth about Rs 40 lakh had been sent to the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) four months ago for the development and beautification of the Clock Tower park.
No response has been received yet from the corporation, which is leading to the delay of maintenance work of the park.A municipal official said that as per the law, green trees cannot be axed without permission granted on valid grounds. This is also one of the major causes responsible for the delay in development work of the park.
The Dehradun Clock Tower is one of the few towers in India with six clocks and also leans slightly like the more famous leaning Tower of Pisa. Sarojini Naidu, the then Governor of Uttar Pradesh, had laid the foundation stone for the Clock Tower and lal Bahadur Shastri later inaugurated it in 1953.
Though the Clock Tower remains one of the most familiar historical monuments of Dehradun, it also remains one of the more ignored monuments of the State capital considering its location in what is considered the heart of the city. The park around the tower has also degenerated due to official apathy.