John L. Paul
KOCHI
The District Council for Child Welfare (DCCW) is under fire, since much of the Ernakulam Children’s Park is in shoddy condition and are out of bounds for visitors, five years since its renovation was entrusted to Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Co. Ltd (KEL).
Both the agencies are in the dock since summer vacation is around the corner and little effort has gone into completing the pending works, although the park was opened to visitors from November 14 (Children’s Day), 2021. There was no dearth of funds either, since Kerala Tourism had allotted ₹4 crore for its renovation, considering the huge number of children who converged on the park during evenings and through the day during weekends.
The park ought to have been renovated by May 2019, 18 months after works began in November 2017, said K.S. Dileep Kumar, president of Ernakulam Vikasana Samithi. “Toy train, bumper cars, computer games, energy park, water theme park and many other amenities are not ready yet. Even worse, open tanks and drains, half-baked civil works and barriers erected to block entry of visitors to ill-maintained portions of the park abound. Garbage is being dumped into the park, while many of the toilets do not have water,” he said.
Hibi Eden, Ernakulam MP, wondered why the DCCW was not taking action against the contractor to whom the work was entrusted, despite the shoddy state of affairs in the park. “I had even offered a part of my MLA fund, to ensure completion of pending works and to ensure quality works, while a publisher had agreed to sponsor the toy train. But DCCW seemed to lack vision was ineffective here too. There was little progress, although I suggested a roller-coaster-like equipment in the premises. A kids’ theatre too is incomplete,” he said.
Sources in DCCW said “file works” were under way for KEL to hand over the park to the council.
The matter is now being pursued at the level of the State government, it is learnt.
