Physical and financial effort all down the drain
A once beautiful friendship Park has literally gone to the dogs. It pains and hurts us to see the current condition of the park and the total lack of upkeep and maintenance.
15-16 years ago, when the Friendship Club was about 5 years old, it was decided to rejuvenate the park opposite J-13, which had become a jungle. Not only was it an eyesore but was also a big security risk for the colony. All sorts of anti-social elements had made it their den and open drinking was the norm of the day then.
A member of Friendship Club – Chandni Agarwal (whom we tragically lost due to COVID), being an architect, made the plan. The huge expanse of land was beautifully landscaped. With joint hard work and very little help from authorities, a beautiful park was created with a Badminton court and it was aptly named Friendship Park.
Weekly hedge cutting, deweeding was under taken by volunteer members. Poonam Kapila purchased all garden equipments like garden scissors, pruners, khurpi and seedlings etc as and when required. Her personal Maali was doing the regular honorary work. A few members used to contribute, otherwise all the main expenses were footed by her.
Authorities and Counselor Shailendra Singh/Monty, got long benches with backrest, a hut and multiple exercise gadgets, light poles, a gate and required sign board / no dogs,no cooking etc installed. Residents used to come for morning and evening walks , senior citizens used to love sitting and meeting each other here and it became the go to place for most residents of the colony who wanted peace and quiet in the lap of mother nature.
However gradually all types of anti-social elements started sitting and loitering there, theft of planted saplings became a norm and residents with pet dogs refused to pick up after them. In spite of requests no action was taken. Authorities turned a blind eye and constant neglect in the form of lack of help from authorities made the volunteers give up eventually.
Today the Park is like a jungle and a free for all dogs park. We all feel very hurt as physical and financial efforts have all gone down the drain. The huge amount of effort put in to turn it into a park from a jungle is completely wasted. The jungle will slowly reclaim the beautiful park it seems.
