Amenities in tatters, Janeshwar Mishra Park no more a walkers’ delight

Lucknow: Prashant Kumar’s grandmother has been cutting short her morning walks at Janeshwar Mishra Park in Gomtinagar for nearly a month now. It’s not because of her ill health but the crumbling state of affairs at the park. As a ritual, she would often conclude her walk with a short meditation. But the benches she would sit on had been missing for a while.
Kumar’s grandmother’s case is not an anomaly.It, rather, encapsulates the agony faced by scores of morning walkers who frequent the park and complain about the sheer neglect of its upkeep.
“My grandmother takes a couple of rounds and then likes to sit for a while in fresh air. In winter, she would even come in the afternoon to sunbathe. But the benches near the lake have been missing. And the area that has some benches is too far away for her,” Kumar noted.
Run by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), the facilities in the park are in tatters. Barring a few metal benches, the wooden ones are broken, and in many places even missing.
This is despite repeated directions by divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob to give a facelift to the park by the end of December.
Morning-evening walkers have expressed their disappointment over inadequate upkeep. While visitors have been complaining about creaking benches for a while now, the fact they have been uprooted without any replacement has left visitors perplexed.
“We had been complaining about broken benches, especially near the open gym area and the lake. Instead of replacing them, they have disappeared altogether,” said another frequent visitor, Tarun Singh.
Not just the benches, but other amenities, too, are in tatters. The jogging track is broken in places, visitors complained. Besides, the stinking lavatories are not only a put-off but also pose health hazards.
Commenting on the issue, Jacob told TOI: “I have taken up the issue with the LDA and directed them to fix the lapses at the earliest.”
The managing committee of the park, meanwhile, claims that the broken benches will be replaced soon. And the ones that have been uprooted will find their way to the ‘UP Darshan Park’, a waste-to-wonder initiative by the LDA.
“We have floated the tender, and it is in the process of getting finalized. New benches will be installed soon,” said Sanjay Jindal, head of the management committee tasked with the upkeep of the park.