Cuttack: Coming down heavily on Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) for poor condition of parks in the city, Orissa high court has observed that the report submitted by the civic agencies was “in stark contrast to reality”.The designated special bench of Justices K R Mohapatra and V Narasingh made the observation on May 21 while hearing an ongoing PIL on multiple civic concerns in Cuttack with assistance from an advocates’ committee headed by the president and secretary of the High Court Bar Association (HCBA).The issue of maintenance of parks had earlier come under the court’s scrutiny on April 23 after HCBA member Satyabrata Mohanty mentioned the matter before the bench. The court had then directed the CMC and CDA to place reports regarding the condition of parks and civic amenities available for visitors.During Thursday’s hearing, CMC city engineer Atanu Kumar Samanta, additional commissioner Sona Tudu, assistant commissioner (park & plantation) Suma Jena and CDA officials appeared before the court. Additional govt advocate Debasis Nayak submitted a compliance report prepared by the park and plantation wing of the CMC.The bench, however, found glaring deficiencies in the maintenance of parks across the city. “Basic facilities like drinking water and clean toilets are not provided in the parks maintained by the CMC and CDA,” the court noted after hearing submissions from officials.Expressing dissatisfaction over the report submitted by the civic bodies, the bench remarked that the authorities’ “lackadaisical attitude” compelled the court to refer to Mark Twain’s famous quote: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”The court directed the CMC to file a fresh compliance affidavit by July 13. The advocates’ committee has been asked to verify the claims made in the affidavit and submit its response by July 20 after serving copies to the CMC counsel.According to official records, there are 52 parks within the CMC jurisdiction. Of these, 46 are directly maintained by the CMC, four by the CDA, while two are managed under the public-private partnership model.The court also took note of complaints regarding Biju Pattanaik Park, where sanitation and lighting arrangements were stated to be inadequate. The CMC’s city engineer assured the court that he would personally supervise the installation of drinking water facilities in all CMC-maintained parks and ensure cleanliness of washrooms. He also assured that immediate steps would be taken to improve sanitation and lighting at Biju Pattanaik Park.
