Shiv Kumar Padha
To provide good education, healthcare and facilities of recreation and amusement to the children and youth is the prime duty of the governments because they fall under the category of both the fundamental rights and the directive principals of state policy. But as far as my information goes, Basohli the sub district headquarter, is the only town in the entire UT where there is no facility of either play ground or the children park ever since independence. As we know the play grounds and the parks are the proper places where the children and the youth can release their pent up energy and develop their personality. In the absence of any park or play ground in the town the children and the youth assemble in the town Chogan in the evenings in order to play and enjoy. It is disgusting that a large number of the children and the youth play in different parts of the small and the tidy ground. Many times, while the children stroll in the Chogan their elder brothers play cricket simultaneously with the result many senior citizens sitting in the Chogan, the passerby and the small children sustain injuries due to the flying cricket balls in the small grounds. Many times the onlookers are hurt and hospitalized. In is pertinent to mention here that a so-called children park was constructed in the mid seventies which has never been taken care of or reconstructed even after a lapse more than 50 years. Now the same space called park has been converted into the parking of the MC Basohli vehicles. It is therefore requested before the local bodies department to provide a beautiful Children Park equipped with the sports and games. It is strange why the proposed sports stadium the foundation stone has been laid 10 years back is still confined to the files whereas the same type of stadium for Hiranagar is not only completed but converted into the national type stadium capable of hosting national events. So in order to implement Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas Basohli town should be meted out with the treatment at par with other places of the UT.
(The author is a social activist from Basohli).
