The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has listened to 'mann ki baat' of a section of civil society of Ranchi working hard to safeguard open spaces, fields and playgrounds notoriously shrinking fast in the city.
Taking action over the letter sent in this regard, the PMO office forwarded this to its Joint Secretary Sanjay Kumar with a direction to take appropriate action and pass instructions to the concerned State authorities.
The plea dispatched on October 30 mentioned about the need for playgrounds, especially for children, when the present generation is acquiring diabetes and symptoms of other lifestyle diseases very fast.
"This caught our attention since open places like Jaipal Singh Stadium started going under construction for building market places etc. Fates of Harmu, Morhabadi and many others are no different. While listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann ki Baat on October 29, in which he was talking about the need to have open space for children, I decided to send him a letter requesting action on the tendency creeping in very fast in Ranchi and other places of the State," says Rajesh Kumar Das, an active member of a social media group of informed and concerned citizens.
The letter mentioned in details about cases of obesity, blood pressure and diabetes citing different studies focused on adolescents and school goers. "We used to have lots of outdoor activities in our childhood days. But now it is becoming difficult with shrinking open spaces. Jaipal Singh Stadium was earlier a water body, later became a playground and now is being converted into vendors' complex," said Das, a businessman who has been a World Bank fellow previously.
The forum in particular is also apprehensive about the Government doing this openly to several other places in Ranchi instead of having a policy promoting children into sports. "Also places left in the roadside are being converted into parking lots. There is no dearth of spaces as far as building vendors' market, shopping complex or parking, etc is concerned. Why to capture the space belonging to our children," asked another member of the group Atul Gera
Jharkhand Civil Society, the whatsapp group of likeminded people, has been instrumental in opposing the move of the Government to encroach upon public places at the cost of 'citizen health.
"We also believe that if we want to promote sports as profession for our coming generation then such places need to be protected. Sports icons can visit there which would be great encouragement for the children. This was the sole idea behind writing to the Prime Minister and we are happy that the PMO has taken note of this," said Das.
The officer handling the complaint is Bureau Head School Education-2 at the PMO. An official in the School Education Department with the State Government informed that matters of that nature often come to his office. "So far we have not received any communication from the PMO but since the PMO's Joint Secretary handles issues about school education it may come to us with certain queries or directions," he said.
Moreover, for the members of the group, the ripple created in the way of protecting 'open lungs' of the capital city for the sake of 'healthy hearts' holds great value, considering matters of that nature are now getting taken note of and becoming a subject of public debate and discussion.