Revive Bharathi Parks lost beauty: Congress MLA

PUDUCHERRY: Congress MLA and former education and tourism minister K Lakshminarayanan has urged the government to draw up a plan to revitalise Bharathi Park which had suffered extensive damage when Cyclone Thane hit.In a memorandum submitted recently to the lieutenant governor, chief minister, minister for agriculture and forest and chief secretary, he stated that there was also a need for a plan for maintenance of the park as Puducherry municipality alone could not do so due to the paucity of funds.  Other sources should be explored for park maintenance, he said.Further he urged the government to ensure that the massive sapling plantation programme planned by the government to green Puducherry should not cause problems to streetlighting.When trees grow they tend to block the streetlighting causing shadow and darkness, which is being taken advantage of by anti-social elements for crimes like chain snatching,“ he said. Either we could reduce the height of the street lamp post or go for new models so that the plantation programme, which is highly essential, does not cause any problem to streetlighting,” said Lakshminarayanan, and added that care-takers should be employed for maintenance of the trees.Further he said that government departments should ensure that proper trimming of trees  is done periodically.  Several tress had fallen to the cyclone because they had not been trimmed or maintained properly.Lakshminarayanan said that he had pointed out  the issue several times, but unfortunately the department of  agriculture and forest had not paid heed.