- Weather | Horoscope | Stocks
expressindia web
HomeBlogsCricketAstrologyShoppingTendersClassifieds OpinionsTravel
| Make this your homepage | Archive
Expressindia » Story

Parking lot thrives on dead lake

Font Size -

Mouparna Bandyopadhyay

Posted online: Friday , April 25, 2008 at 01:13:26
Updated: Friday , April 25, 2008 at 01:13:26


kolkata, April 24 A large water body offers a pleasant experience to any locality. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), however, thinks otherwise as a visit to Subhas Sarovar would indicate. This large water body in ward number 33 has been destroyed by the neglect of the civic authorities. “The destruction of the water body began a few years ago when the Kolkata Improvement Trust decided to cement its banks. It killed whatever traces of living organisms were left in the waters,” says environmentalist Mukuta Mukherjee.

While the plans for the development of the area through public and private partnerships remain confined to government files, the lake premises are now being used as a parking lot —- courtesy Kolkata Police and the cinema complexes that have come up close to the lake.

The problem
Far from being a cheerful site for visitors, ever since Swabhumi and 89 Cinemas came up near the lake, the lake premises have become a car-parking area for the cine-goers, especially on weekends. Local boys from Sharda Club and Naba Yubak Brinda Club have taken over a certain stretch within the lake premises and operate the car park from there. They have no due permission from the KMC or from the Kolkata traffic police.
Further, whenever there is a state government event at the Salt Lake stadium, the Kolkata police use this area for car parking. During the Kolkata Book Fair held recently, about 50-60 cars were parked on the lake premises everyday.

What locals say
Security guards at the Swabhumi parking lot admitted that the local youths at Subhas Sarovar often threaten the car owners to cough up more money. “We provide free parking at Swabhumi and if people want to park their cars at the lake, we cannot be held responsible,” said a security guard. Dilip Pal, a resident of AB Block in Salt Lake said that he was forced to pay Rs 40 for two hours of parking. “It is not a KMC-authorised parking lot and these anti-social elements had no right to demand money from me. Such incidents often happen,” he said. A number of residents also complained that they felt the area was unsafe as local goons kept loitering in the area till late in the night.
The locals complain that the lake has become inaccessible during the movie shows in the evenings. Environmentalists argue that parking of cars in such huge numbers would add to the pollution besides driving away all the nesting birds. “I come for my evening walk here everyday. But I guess this little stretch of left land will also be converted into a parking area soon,” said Sidhu Chakraborty, a resident of Beliaghata.

Authorities’ defence
“The decision to park the cars in the lake premises was collectively taken by many agencies. We had to provide a place that would be close to the book fair. If people have a complaint, they are free to suggest other alternatives. But so many cars cannot be parked on the roads,” said DC traffic Manoj Verma.
Admitting to the ongoing menace, the councillor of ward number 33, Rajib Biswas of the CPM said, “I am aware that the area was used for parking by the Kolkata Police during the book fair. But that is outside my jurisdiction.”

Bookmark this Page
  • Digg

    On Digg, users share intersting online content by submitting links to the site. At that point, the Digg audience can vote on whether or not they think it is interesting. Articles with lots of votes, or "diggs," rise up higher on the site's main page and topical subsection pages. Another form of social sharing, this site also lets users categorize the content they are submitting to Digg and label it with descriptions of up to 350 characters. Digg users can also submit comments on each content item submitted to the site.

    To register, go to: http://digg.com/register

    del.icio.us

    At its most basic level, del.icio.us allows users to save their bookmarks online. Del.icio.us also gives users the ability to "tag" their bookmarks with descriptive category names. For example, someone who has bookmarked multiple Web pages that deal with the Washington Nationals baseball team could tag those links with any terms they want, like "baseball," "nationals," "natsfan," etc.

    As members of a "social bookmarking" community, del.icio.us sers can also see how many other people have bookmarked the same pages, and they can look at those users' bookmark collections to find other interesting online content.

    To register, go to: http://del.icio.us/register

    Reddit

    Reddit allows users to submit news articles and other online content to the site. Users also give articles a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Reddit then uses those votes to build a user profile and to find articles to recommend to you. Users can also submit comments on items posted to the site.

    To register, go to: http://reddit.com/login

Rate this Article
0
Rating
Ads by Google
Post Comments
Name* Email ID*
Subject* Country*
Message*
Characters remaining
 
TERMS OF USE: The views represented here are not neccesarily endorsed by www.expressindia.com and its allied websites. All messages will be moderated and no message that has inflammatory, abusive, derogatory language or any language deemed unfit for publication by the editor will be displayed. Though it will be endeavoured that as many messages as possible be displayed, there will be time lag between the submission and publication of the messages. The website reserves the right to publish or reject any message.
I agree to the terms of use.
Cong snubs Left as it sets July 7 nuke deadl...Govt has the numbers, we are ready to prove ...China's foreign debts reach $392 bnIndia to get Russian nuclear submarine after...We will vote against confidence motion: Kara...Best available team will go to Lanka: Vengsa...

© 2008 Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd. All rights reserved
The Indian Express Group | Advertise With Us | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Work With Us | Site Map