Citizen Connect: Lack of maintenance turns Chitlapakkam park into den for anti-social elements

Chittalapakkam village panchayat consists of nine wards with around 8,000 people. Sources said that the village has nine parks and the one in ward 8, 3rd Street, is not being properly maintained. It has now become a den for anti-social elements.

The villagers said that a boy who went inside the park to search for a ball a week ago was bitten an unidentified insect and he is still admitted to a private hospital. Residents said that there are many snakes in the overgrown bushes and panchayat officials have not taken any steps to clear it even after repeated complaints.

Three years ago, the villagers had joined together to clean the park by themselves and even after that, the park was not maintained by the panchayat. So it went back to a bad shape again. V Santhanam, president of Pallavapuram residents’ association, said, “The park is filled with poisonous plants and insects and the residents are being affected because of this. The panchayat should not take the matter lightly and take steps to clean and maintain the park.”

Villagers added that they are ready to clean the park again and after doing that it should be properly maintained by the panchayat or else their efforts would go in vain.

They said that children are unable to play on the roads near the park since snakes and dangerous insects abundant.

When contacted, Chittalapakkam village panchayat secretary R Sethupathi said, “There are nine parks in the village and the one which is not maintained is one of the smallest parks. But we need to maintain that also. Since we don’t have enough funds, the work is getting delayed. Will take the issue to the collector and soon the park will be cleaned,” he said.