Is this a park worth Rs 12.5 million?
KARACHI: A park is being constructed near my house and when it is completed we will play in it, dreams nine-year-old Jibran, as he directs his passenger boat towards Baba Island, a small island in the neighbourhood of Keamari.
Jibran, who has never visited a park or recreational centre, is sharing his excitement with every new passenger who boards his boat. However, the passengers, who are not interested in parks, ignore his story and are engrossed in the sea and the water splashing from it due to the movement of the boat. They see parks everyday and do not understand why the boy is not enchanted by the sea and its magnificence. They do not even inquire as to why the boy is so happy about the park. Jibran, on the other hand, treats the sea just like we treat land. He has been swimming in the sea since he was born and it has long lost its charm for him.
He dreams about feeling grass under his feet, swings and the sun to over look it all. “We will have a park like the rest of the city,” the boy said, with his enthusiasm pouring out. Baba Island has a population of 12,500, according to the official records. While the Katchi people have been living here for the last four centuries and that too without the basic necessities of life. They earn their livelihood by taking people around in boats and fishing.
Jibran is one of the hundreds of children, who have been waiting for the last three years for the completion of the park that the Keamari government started in order to provide recreational opportunities to this deprived island’s children, who have done nothing but swim and fish.
The residents of the area are still hoping that the park will be completed soon, despite the passage of three long years.
The locals belong to the very poor segment of our society and don’t even dare ask why the construction work has been stopped at the park. They are ignorant of the fact that as per the Keamari government’s records, the park has already been ‘successfully completed’.
The project of the park at Baba Island was started by the Keamari town administration after it issued a tender worth Rs 2.5 million to a private contractor about three and a half years back.
According to the sources at the town’s nazim office, the budget for the park ‘was then revised by 300 percent’ and the money spared for the project by the town nazim and issued to the contractor reached an amount of Rs 12.5 million.
According to sources, the town administration not only misused its powers by ‘revising’ the budget by 300 percent but also by declaring the park as ‘completed’ in the documents.
The park, which according to the documents has been completed, consists only of boundary walls.
When the overjoyed Jibran took this scribe to the park where, according to him, ‘he would soon play’, all that was found interesting for the children was the body of a dead cat, which the children had surrounded. The children, including Jibran, do not know that the park might never be completed. The Keamari town administration has denied offering any comments, while it seems like Jibran’s dreams have been closed with the files in the administration office and sealed tight in its drawers. “Hum raat ko khelengey gey (We shall play in the night),” said an overexcited Jibran.
Source: Daily Times
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