COMMUNITY

Banasar Bagh set to regain its lost glory Shariq Majeed Tribune News Service Sangrur, November 8 After the state government “failed” to renovate the Banasar Bagh following years of its neglect, a joint initiative by two NGOs - People for Transparency (PFT) and People for Democratic Reforms and Governance - with an active support of residents has changed the fortune of the garden. Residents inspect the renovation work at the Banasar Bagh in Sangrur. A Tribune photograph It had, in fact, converted into a bushy forest area where no one dared to tread even in the daytime, but due to this initiative, this heritage site is regaining its glory. According to the Right to Information (RTI), even as the government spent Rs 46 lakh for the renovation of the garden a few years ago, it failed to give an uplift to the garden. However, the initiative by the NGOs, which had launched an “apna bagh aap savaro” campaign to restore the lost glory of this heritage site a few days ago, has successfully managed to give it a facelift. To ensure transparency in spending money on the renovation work, the NGOs have pasted cashbook details of the expenditure on one of the walls. What is more startling is the fact that even as the government had spent Rs 46.84 lakh on the renovation and beautification of this garden, cash details of the NGOs reveal that they have done 75 per cent of the cleaning work for about Rs 13,000 with the whole work costing about Rs 15,000. “We don’t get funds for the renovation work from any government agency, but we are stimulating residents to adopt various parts of the garden for long-term maintenance,” said Fateh Prabhakar, President of the Banasar Bagh Welfare association. “We are focusing on the sustained cleaning of the garden and allotting different areas of the garden to the people for maintenance,” he added. Many local residents have come forward to donate money while some have adopted various parts of the garden for maintenance.“We are pasting cashbook details of the money spent to ensure transparency in the process”, said Kamal Anand, member of the PFT. “This initiative has started bearing results with the garden regaining its past glory”, said Kapil Mittal, a resident of Patiala gate. Meanwhile, the former MLA and Chairman of the Umeed Foundation, an NGO, Arvind Khanna, has also adopted a part of the garden for renovation and repair.