Karthikeya Kumar, who came to Freedom Park on Sunday afternoon to relax with his family, found it to be a repelling experience with stench rising from the huge mounds of garbage piled on the playground.
A regular to the park on weekends, Mr. Kumar expressed disappointment on the way an important landmark had been converted into a garbage dump yard. “I am very disappointed and now deterred to return to this park. The stinking garbage here could lead to health complications in children, who come to play here,” he told The Hindu .
This employee of a garment shop was not alone expressing their ire at the apathy of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in letting the garbage, which has become an eyesore as well as a health hazard, dumped near the Freedom Park.
A few other visitors to this park at Gandhinagar said the stench had become unbearable at times. “It is time the authorities took steps to clear the waste as soon as possible,” another visitor said.
As the city grapples with the garbage disposal crisis with huge quantities of waste generated, especially after the recent festivities, garbage contractors from Gandhinagar, Seshadripuram and K.G. Nagar area have started dumping the garbage collected from these areas in the open ground in Freedom Park, which attracts hundreds of visitors daily.
According to a garbage contractor, the Freedom Park ground is being used as a transit point over the last few days since now garbage is being to the landfills on the city’s outskirts, in the night. “We have no other place to store the garbage after it is lifted from the respective areas and till the time it is taken for dumping in the night since local population around the landfills have opposed dumping during day time,” a contractor, on condition of anonymity, said and added that they were aware of the complaints by the residents in the vicinity to the civic body.
