Cubbon Park was a haven for anti-socials

I got transferred to Bangalore from Bombay High Court in 1994. As Cubbon Park  is located next to the high court, the first thing I found was, it was used by politicians for organising demonstrations. They used to bring hundreds of people in buses and trucks for taking part in demonstrations. Every day, huge crowd used to gather at the park. Cubbon Park was an ideal location for them since it is near Vidhana Soudha. The result was: You find one or the other political party leader bringing two to three thousand people from outstation to the park.

The people used to tell me that politicians  brought them by promising to take them on sight seeing in Bangalore. Most of the political leaders used to tell them to stay in the park and asked them to use tree branches as timber for cooking. Due to lack of toilet facility, the park was used as an open toilet.

That apart, the timber mafia used to cut down trees at the park. At night, the park was being used for three things—prostitution, homosexuality and drug peddling. Many senior citizens complained that  it was very dangerous to enter the park after sunset.

Owing to all this, the scene in Cubbon Park was unpleasant to say the least. The people involved in anti-social activities claimed of paying money to the Cubbon Park police station. They said that they were paying Rs1 lakh to the police and even asked me to contribute if I wanted to join their business. In addition, they told me that they had to pay Rs25,000 to horticulture department per month for allowing them to use Cubbon Park to carryout all these activities.

In order to facilitate these activities, the lights used to be switched off at 7.30 pm everyday. By early morning, they were back on. When asked, the horticulture department staff said there were some problems with the lighting. I took up the issue with the horticulture department officials. I told them to install automatic electric sensors, following which they set up a control centre for lighting near the KSLTA stadium.

I advised the then police commissioner Revanasiddaiah to intensify vigil at Cubbon Park during nighttime. I even offered to bear the cost for purchasing bicycles for policemen, but the police commissioner had directed his subordinates to depute more policemen to keep an eye on anti-social elements. He did not agree to take money from me for purchasing bicycles. They used to send mounted policemen to Cubbon Park every day.

All the illegal activities came to a halt after that, and people started visiting Cubbon Park even during late evenings.

I found that the department of horticulture staff used to collect Rs1,000 from each cowherds for allowing their cows to graze in the park at night. These cows used to damage plants and also made it difficult for walkers by laying mounds of dung on the roads.

The horticulture department had decided to construct public toilet behind the High Court. I objected to it. But the horticulture department officials told me that they had already spent Rs62 lakh for the construction of the toilets, which should not have cost more than Rs 2 lakh.

I also adopted a water pond called Lotus Pond. Chief minister SM Krishna thanked me for adopting the pond and bringing ducks and turtles, fish and birds to live in it.  I used to spend a lot of money on its maintenance. It became a favourite destination for many. The horticulture department officials, who were not happy for not getting money, told me that they wanted to renovate the Lotus Pond at the cost of Rs3 crore. I told them that there was no need to renovate but they said the minister for horticulture took the decision.
All the ducks were found butchered when I visited in the morning.

As told to Y Maheswara Reddy

Justice
MF Saldanha
former Judge of Karnataka
High Court