Terming the news report regarding refurbishing of Pratap Park Srinagar, carried by Jammu-based newspaper “Early Times” in its edition on 24 November 2015 as baseless and concocted, Director Floriculture Kashmir, Mr Talat Parvaiz today said that improvement and beautification of Pratap Park is being done by a Mumbai-based corporate house out of its own resources under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme and the State Government is not spending a penny on it.He said the Mumbai-based corporate house is going to spend around Rs 80 lakh under CSR on refurbishment and beautification of the flood-hit Pratap Park and the work is being executed through a Kashmir-based NGO “Help Foundation” as per the approved plan of the Floriculture Department.
“The company will hand-over the park to the Floriculture Department after completion of the work,” he said.Mr Talat further said that the restoration and renovation work of another flood-hit park, Sher-e-Kashmir Municipal Park near Polo View, is being done by the Department of Floriculture out of its own plan funds and no private company has been assigned the job, as has been falsely reported by the newspaper.He said the Department of Floriculture has undertaken refurbishing of all the parks in Srinagar which were extensively damaged during the devastating floods of September 2014.The Director has expressed dismay over the misleading and phony allegations leveled in the news report without verifying the facts.