Kolkata : Don Bosco School, which has been standing on Darga Road, bang opposite Park Circus Maidan since 1958, has, on instructions from Kolkata Police, started using the greenery, as a parking lot.
Ever since the school issued a circular on August 5, directing parents to park their vehicles inside the park, scores of pooled cars can be seen lined up inside the Maidan.
Father Bikash Mondal, principal of Don Bosco, Park Circus, told Times of India on Tuesday, “All these years, cars ferrying students were parked along Darga Road, as per an understanding we have had with the police.” But then, he said, Darga Road was made one-way and parking wasn’t allowed there. “We were then advised by the traffic police to make this alternative arrangement of parking cars inside Maidan.”
The police, said the principal, had even assured the authorities to escort students to Maidan to board their cars. “They (cops) have made allowances for small boys, letting them to be dropped at the school gate between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.” Otherwise, cars are parked inside Maidan.
But the “official decision” on parking inside Park Circus Maidan has stunned residents.
“In school, we were taught to protect the park, supposed to be the lungs of the area. We have grown up with the awareness that the green expanse provides the much-needed break from the maze of concrete. How can the same school forget its responsibilities?” said a Don Bosco alumnus, The Times of India reported.
The residents fear a similar demand might come from Lady Brabourne College and Mahadevi Birla World Academy. Long-time resident and a morning walker Parimal Roy questioned “the authority that permitted a private school to issue such a circular”. Echoed Madhumita Deb, a senior citizen and a retired teacher, “The grass will vanish and there will be a terrible rise in dust. We cannot allow such merciless attack.” The park, she said, was in a sorry state, with around 40% encroachment, broken swings and benches, wilting plants and missing tiles.