Bengaluru :

Brigadier who carved the 22-acre Cariappa park out of defence land near MG Road slams colleagues for barring entry to public The man who opened the Army’s doors to Bengalureans has slammed his colleagues for barring the city’s residents from entering the Cariappa Memorial Park in the heart of the city.

The 22-acre park was meant to be the Army’s gift to the city but has been closed since 1998, two years after it was inaugurated. A board next to the now-abandoned park’s gate reads: `Restricted area’. The present Army establishment in the state says the park area, categorized as A1 defence land, cannot be made available to the public under Ministry of Defense guidelines.

Brigadier (Retd) Ashok Nagpaul, who established the park on defence land to foster closer interaction between the Army and public, said the Army cannot block entry into the park. “The land not only belongs to the defence but also to the people of Bengaluru,” said the former Commanding Officer for Karnataka and Kerala.

“There was 57 acres of land lying wasted. There were illegal activities like prostitution and other things that used to happen in that area, so I decided to build a parade ground and the park,” Nagpaul, 72, said over the phone from Pune.

A top Army official said that with defence land being rampantly encroached on, the Army cannot afford to give its land for public use.”In 1994 maybe people were not conscious about utilization of defence land, but consequent to which in lots of places we started losing defence land, and … very stringent guidelines were framed that you cannot use defence land for public purposes,” the official told ET, declining to be identified.

Until 1994, the park area was part of a larger parcel of land between Cubbon Road and MG Road.

source:http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Collection> MG Road / by ET Bureau / February 17th, 2015