It all happened in 2005 when the then Assistant Commissioner Prabhakar Sharma (now Udupi Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer), and his wife had to bear the brunt of air, as well as noise pollution, resulting from the land-levelling activities undertaken by a private firm owner, behind their residence, (the Assistant Commissioner’s official quarters) at Hat Hill, in the heart of City.
As the land-levelling work progressed and reached closer to their quarters, Sharma suspected that the developers were exceeding their boundary. In order to clear his doubts, he ordered for a survey of the land (being in the Revenue department, it was easy for him).
To his surprise, the survey revealed that as much as 69 cents of the land belonged to the government (PWD) and the private firm was levelling the government land. Sharma approached the private firm and a re-survey was done. And when the truth dawned, the private firm proprietors immediately handed over the land to the district administration, recalled Prabhakar Sharma.
Next course of action
Though he succeeded in reclaiming the land, Sharma was not clear on his next course of action. He and a few like-minded officers decided to develop the area as a park exclusively for women, since there were many officers’ wives in the area and they did not have any place or park to spend their leisure. They also decided that the area could be developed for the physically challenged also.
When the idea was shared with the then Mangalore City Corporation Commissioner (MCC) Sameer Shukla (presently Bidar DC), he also agreed and the MCC worked towards realising the dream project.
“The MCC, which built a compound wall around the area to prevent encroachment, thus began constructing the park,” recalled Shukla over phone from Bidar.
Fillip to project
The project received a further boost during the term of Dr K N Vijayprakash, when he was the MCC Commissioner (presently DK ZP CEO).
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Dr Vijayprakash said that though the park will be inaugurated by District-in-Charge Minister Krishna J Palemar on Monday, a lot of works are yet to be completed.
“Plans are on the anvil to do meaningful activities like establishing a radio house, install speakers along the walking track, set up a clinic exclusively for women with facilities to check blood and sugar levels, and also a library,” he added.
Needless to say, the exclusive park for eves will be maintained and guarded by women only!