Cubbon Park building plan: Govt to look for alternatives

BENGALURU: Following people’s opposition to a proposed 10-storey building inside Cubbon Park, officials of the public works department (PWD), who’ve been entrusted with the execution of the project, said alternatives are being looked at.
“There has been no change in the plan yet. But we’re looking for other options for the building. Nothing is decided or frozen yet,” a PWD official said on the condition of anonymity.
Many citizens’ forums have vowed to prevent any construction from taking place inside the park.Apart from the physical demonstrations and protests, social media is also buzzing with comments on this new plan, with some people taking the sarcastic route to convey their disappointment.
“Let us also have a brewery inside the park,” Ajinkya Ketkar, an X user, wrote.
“Why are we destroying our Garden City with such harebrained proposals! Cubbon Park must be untouched. No construction should be permitted,” Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon Limited, posted on X. Another social media user humorously commented that the officials who need a building in the park must sit under trees and work instead.
Arun Panicker, X user, wondered what else could be constructed in Lalbagh.
Even though the public opinion on the matter is palpable and loud, govt officials said their hands are tied as the proposal has been passed and ordered by members of the state judiciary. “There is no political pressure, it is the executive-judiciary relationship that is sensitive,” an official source said.