K'pong park out of bounds for students

Nisha Chettri, SNS, 19 January 2019, Kalimpong: A popular park in Kalimpong town has allegedly blocked the entry of students, following incidents of fights and complaints that said students while away their time there instead of studying tor the upcoming board examinations. However, while the park authorities said it was not clear as to who actually barred such entry of students there, there is also a talk doing the rounds that the student wing of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha has a hand in doing so.

"Students are not allowed to enter in side the park," reads a notice put up at the gate of the Industrial Park, in the heart of the town at Dambar Chowk.

People around the park said students often "roll their notebooks and slip them in their back pockets and bask in the sun with friends till late in the evening, while their parents believe that they have been attending their tuition classes."

There have also been complaints about evenings at the park where youngsters. "high in substances" pick up fights with one another, disturbing everybody who visits the place for a coffee at a joint near Damber Chowk.

"A group of students very recently had a group fight, and this compelled the committee to paste a poster outside a gate, barring the entry of students," a source said.

While some said that the committee of Parks and Gardens had taken such a decision, sources at the Parks and Gardens division of the Forest Department said they do not have a "clear idea" about it

There is also a talk going on in the town that the Morcha's student wing had taken the initiative to ban the students in the park. Leaders of the student wing, however, denied the same, but supported the move.

"Students who go to tuition venture out early bask in the sun and spend a good time at the park. We are concerned about their education. If they score well despite this, it is fine...but not everybody does that. So we also come here and study, but until the exams are over, the park will block the entry of students, and we support the move of the Parks and Gardens division, Deepen Chettri, the president of the Student Morcha, said.

Meanwhile, some students at the park said they come to unwind for a while, and that they get a much-needed "rest" there.

"We students come here not to use drugs, but we come here to take some rest, in school uniform. The order is good to some extent, but there should be proper checking during the entry and not put a blanket ban on students,' a student said.