The progress of various under-construction projects and restoration of various parks in the State capital has come to a grinding halt due to the sluggish attitude of the authorities concerned.
The historic Clock Tower Park and the Patel Park of the town are suffering from negligence of the authorities.
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) mainly holds the maintenance responsibilities of the Clock Tower Park. The park has been in a miserable condition for some time now due to official neglect.
The maintenance work of the park is being delayed due to the awaited reply of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) to the proposal submitted by the MCD officials. It must be mentioned that a proposal of Rs 40 lakh was sent by MCD to HUDCO four months back for the construction and development work of the Clock Tower Park. As per the MCD officials the renovation work was delayed mainly due to the awaited reply of the HUDCO to the proposal.
However, when asked Mayor of Dehradun, Vinod Chamoli maintained that there is need for some amendment in the proposal as the budget proposed for the renovation work of the Clock Tower Park was not sufficient and need to be increased further.
Now after making some amendment in the proposal MCD has decided to contribute financially in the renovation project of the park. Therefore, MCD would be contributing an assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the renovation work of the park.
Chamoli further said that prior to starting the restoration task of the Clock Tower the officials of the HUDCO had asked the MCD officials to reply to some of their queries after which the further renovation work may proceed.
Meanwhile, the work of developing the Patel Park located near Clock Tower has come to a standstill. The Horticulture Superintendent of Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA), AR Joshi under whose supervision the construction and development of the park is being done had last month claimed that the work is in progress and most probably it would be completed in two or three months.
When asked about the reason for the delay in the development of the Patel Park, Joshi sought the earlier report published in The Pioneer on this issue stating that he would provide the information sought after reading the earlier news report.
It must be mentioned that Joshi had earlier also claimed that the Patel Park would be developed with a budget of Rs 40-50 lakh with various national and State level themes.