Ministers have snacks as children wait

The ministers, who were to be accompanied by the Chief Minister, arrived late in the first place. And more, with almost no regard for the waiting children, decided to eat first.  While the children - some dressed up to play instruments to welcome the ministers and some memorising the welcome speech -  waited, the ministers leisurely ate cutlets and cashews, spoke over tea and moved towards the dais, awaiting them for over an hour.

The organisers and other guests too obliged. The ‘Traffic Park’ was opened after all the ‘formalities.’ The objective of the Park is to provide practical knowledge on road safety for children.

Divya, an Administrative Officer at the Bal Bhavan said: “The initiative is to see that children learn the rules of traffic very early in their childhood so that the roads in the City become more commuter-friendly and safe.”

‘Real experience’
The Park is so designed so as to make children conversant with one-ways, make them take a U-turn, stop at signals etc. One of the engineers said: “We have tried incorporating everything that a person might encounter on the roads including speedbrakers.”

Divya further explained that the Bal Bhavan will soon start playing a 10-15 minute film with all the traffic signals, signboards and rules with material borrowed from the Police and Toyota, which has expertise in the domain.

Besides, Toyota has donated about 10 cycles and 10 children’s cars to the Bal Bhavan which will be provided free of cost to students of Government and at nominal fees for other children to use at the Park and learn the rules as they practice. This, representatives said, will encourage more children to come to the Park as they will get to ride the cycle or drive the car and in the process, learn traffic rules.

Minister C C Patil said the Government was mooting an adventure park for children spread across 30 acres in Somanahalli. However, he conceded that all the connecting roads to the 30-acre land have been encroached and that the Government was in the process of reclaiming the land.