Hand over Children’s Park at Company Bagh to public: Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh to AIT Chairman

Tribune News Service

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, April 15

MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Chairman of Amritsar Improvement Trust through a letter demanding that Children Park located at Company Bagh should be handed over to the public.

Along with a delegation, he met with Chairman Ashok Talwar and raised a demand to open the park to the general public. It is worth mentioning here that in 2016, the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) had transferred the park at Company Bagh to a private firm on an 11-year lease in gross violation of the established principles of public policy and governance.

MLA Kunwar said the Company Bagh is a heritage park and it is looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). However, the maintenance work was being looked after by the municipal corporation. The AIT entered into an illegal contract with a private firm by transferring the park on lease to a private party in 2016. Even the Amritsar Municipal Corporation has no authority to authorise the lessor (AIT) to enter into such an illegal contract. The park was earlier open to the common people of Amritsar without any charges but during the SAD-BJP regime, it was illegally handed over to the private firm.

Kunwar said in the given circumstances, the AIT has no authority to enter into such a contract with any private firm. “The object and intention of the contract was to provide an unfair advantage to a private party. It is clear from the contents and phraseology of the contract. Not only this, the lessee (private party) has been authorized to charge separate fees for entry, parking and riding, which is completely contrary to established principles of public policy. Even the term “High Powered Committee” is not defined in the Agreement”, said the MLA.

In this regard, MLA Kunwar said he had raised a strong demand through question number 1011 in the Punjab Assembly in the recently concluded budget session in this regard. Kunwar added that the formation of such a “high-powered committee” for this nefarious purpose further abets the alleged nexus of the political mafia as people generally discuss openly.

Kunwar emphasised that it can be said that the contract has been entered into with the sole intention of giving undue monetary benefit to the private party and the interests of the common citizens have been ignored. He said that I am making this demand in the public interest and especially under the instructions of those people who have been deprived of the use of the premises of Children Park.

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