Ghost Project: Mismanagement leaves parks desolate

FAISALABAD: A Faisalabad Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) official has said that 221 parks in the city had been deserted due to the lack of recreational facilities. The official said that the PHA had failed to appoint staff for the maintenance of the parks. He said that the PHA had been assigned the task of developing 334 public parks. Out of these the organisation had failed to maintain 221. The official alleged that the senior management of the PHA was not interested in pursuing the project. He said that 80 of these parks were located in Lyallpur Town, 40 were in Medina Town, 70 in Iqbal Town and 31 in Jinnah Town. A PHA spokesperson denied the allegation. He said that the project was not being pursued due to a paucity of funds. He said that the government had failed to release funds for the project despite repeated requests over the last five years. The spokesperson said that work on the project would commence as soon as the funds were released by the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2014.