BJP workers on Sunday inaugurated the Butterfly garden park,near the Araneshwar temple in Sahakar Nagar,claiming it had not been inaugurated though the work was completed almost six years ago. However,officials of the gardens department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said some construction is yet to be over.
Bhanudas Mane,deputy commissioner,garden department,said: Most of the construction work was completed only last year. The library is yet to be ready and we need at least three cycles of butterflies,which take about three years,in order to have the park running. In another 15 days,we expect it to be ready and we had scheduled an inauguration for next month. A decision on whether the park will remain open to the public or not will be taken only after a meeting of senior officials of PMC on Monday.
However,BJP leaders said the lack of political will among local corporators has left the park in the lurch. Taxpayers money is going into maintenance of the park completed in 2006. However,apart from the gardener,not a soul has entered the garden since. Today we have symbolically inaugurated it and it will hence be open between 10 am and 4pm, said BJP MLA Madhuri Misal.
Congress corporator Ulhas Bagul,in whose ward the garden has been set up,said a bridge connecting the butterfly garden to a neighbouring nala garden is still being built and this was the reason for the delay. I have struggled for the last 10 years to get the garden started and got the land after winning a case in the High Court. Today,suddenly some other political party wants to walk away with the credit for all the work. We had planned to call a non-political figure for the inauguration next month, said Bagul.
As per PMC figures,Rs 15 lakh was spent on the park. Initially,it was home to some some 50 species of butterflies,most of which are dead now.