Jammu lacks places of entertainment for children

Nidhi Sirohi

Jammu, December 26

Barring a few parks and a couple of shopping malls, Jammu city — being the favourite destination for the people from different of Kashmir valley and hilly areas of Jammu region — lacks major places of entertainment.

Parents, on several occasions, find it difficult to look for a good place to take their wards for an outing. There is no park or place for them where they can find different sources of entertainment at one junction. They either go for shopping or watch movie in cinema halls.

Main reasons for it, according to stakeholders, were that the successive governments and the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) did not focus on formulating some policies to build places such as amusement parks, water parks, zoos, adventure islands and children’s parks.

“Though the government has developed some places, including Maharaja Hari Singh Park, Bagh-e-Bahu Park, Manda Zoo and Dogra Art Museum, yet parents have no option of having all aspects of entertainment in one place. The parents have limited options so they either go to Wave Mall or watch movies in cinema halls,” Amit Sharma, a resident of Jullakha Mohalla said.

Parvez Ahmad, a resident of Srinagar, said, “During winter breaks, we come to Jammu but here also there are limited places of entertainment in the city. In Kashmir, our children are deprived of cinema halls and other entertainment sources. Except for a few parks and cinema halls, there is no other option. It is probably because the government has never bothered to think over the issue”.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in 2017, had announced Rs 100-crore project for developing catchment areas of Ranjit Sagar Lake in Kathua district’s Basohli area as “Disneyland of India” and develop it on the pattern of “EsselWorld”—the country’s largest amusement theme park in Mumbai. However, it remained a mere announcement as the project could not see any progress thereafter.

Ambika Sharma, a mother of two, regretted, “The focus has remained on developing tourist places but children did not find any place in the planning of the governments. We face awkward situations several times when our children ask to go for an outing. Barring shopping and cinemas, there is no other option with us. The parks having some joyrides are overcrowded”.

However, Chander Mohan Gupta, Mayor, claimed that the civic body had now sanctioned Rs 2 lakh for each municipal ward to develop existing parks for children.

“Councillors will install joyrides in the parks of 75 municipal wards. Besides, we are planning to sign a MoU with the Tourism Department to set up an amusement park in the Nagrota area where the civic body has 75 kanals. The Tourism Department has Rs 20 crore available with it for the project,” the Mayor said.

Gupta also said he would meet Lt-Governor of J&K Girish Chandra Murmu and request him for developing at least 10 to15 amusement parks in Jammu so that the people would have better options for an outing with their family.