Kolkata: State finance minister Swapan Dasgupta batted for the city’s green on Tuesday and called for the parks to be kept open and accessible to locals, stressing that public green spaces should not be controlled by clubs or restricted groups. “Parks are meant for residents of the area. Look at Deshapriya Park and Vivekananda Park where access is restricted. If locals cannot use it, what is the utility of the park?” he said.Dasgupta said citizens had been excluded from decisions involving public spaces and added that the present govt wanted to bring residents back into the process. He was especially critical of developments at Deshapriya Park, alleging that construction had come up around a tennis court and that a portion of the park had been taken over by a club.Days after being sworn in as chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari had visited Harish Park and Chetla Park and raised concerns over encroachment and restricted access in city parks. Adhikari had criticised the manner in which the use of Harish Park had allegedly been cornered by members of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s family and their associates, turning a public space into a controlled zone where entry depended on political proximity rather than citizenship.Dasgupta on Tuesday was speaking at Lions Safari Park, where he and panchayat and rural development minister Dilip Ghosh inaugurated a Nature Diversity Park. He urged members of Lions International to look beyond the park and consider the ecological condition of the surrounding area. “There is indiscriminate construction everywhere. We need to build responsibly,” he said.Calling on park authorities and custodians to protect green spaces and avoid excessive development in the name of beautification, Dasgupta said: “Remember, this is a park. And that is what it should remain. Preserving the greenery is an obligation.” He also criticised the construction of the Lake Gardens flyover, calling it an act of ecological vandalism that had cut off Rabindra Sarobar’s vital water link. “The water connection with the Hooghly river was severed. It is extremely unfortunate that the water level at the lake is receding. All who live in south Kolkata treasure the lake. This is like an oasis in a city which was on the verge of destroying itself. We are trying to revive it,” Dasgupta said.
