Save the Maidan (Kolkata)

Dear Defence Minister,Ministry of Defence,Govt. of India

I am a citizen of India residing in Kolkata & have a desperate request to you.

Recently, the CM of West Bengal has submitted a request to you asking you to hand over the control of the city's greens, the Maidan & the Race Course, to the state government. Please DO NOT entertain any such request from the West Bengal government.

Giving the control of the Maidan to the political party would mean killing the city's only green patch.We,Calcuttans are already dying a slow death everyday breathing the deadly air that the state government has gifted us through its shocking apathy for environmental measures.

Poisonous gases from vehicles are suffocating our breath & the government has turned a blind eye & never tries to do anything to rein in the pollution by at least increasing state greenery.

The city's only green cover, the Maidan, remains our only source for any natural air. Even this ground has been repeatedly misused by the government by holding rallies & political meetings and ravaging the place in the process.

The state government might be claiming that they want to improve the greenery after taking the control from the Army. This is a blatant lie. Ironically, the ruling Left Front and the CPM have, time and again, come under court flak for flouting green norms while holding rallies on the Brigade Parade Grounds. The most recent of these was a Left Front rally on February 8th 2009, where Left cadres dug up the greenery and cooked on open fires, in direct violation of a high court order.

The Army has been & would always remain the best guardian of the Maidan. Please allow the Defence Ministry to continue having control of the place. The State government is going to destroy the Kolkata's lungs ( as Maidan is best called ) once it assumes any control over this green territory.

An earnest request from a citizen who doesn't want to die of ever-increasing pollution by losing the only green thing in the city of Kolkata