Birsa Munda Park – the sole amusement park of Dhanbad, set over 24 acres of land in Nawadih is in poor condition due to poor maintenance and lack of income from ticket sales. The park, established in2009, had been closed for 11 months due to the pandemic.

As many as 27 employees of the park including 10 gardeners; two sweepers, ticket clerks, jhula operators, a manager, and 11 other park staff have not received their salary for the past three months.

Similar is the condition of the 12 food outlets situated inside the park. Even after the park reopening, around ten of them are lying closed, as the owners have been unable to pay the pending rent of 11 months. The park management has asked them to clear their dues for the ‘closure period’ too.

But, it’s the entertainment facilities of the park that has been hit the most. The toy train, which is the main attraction of the park has been lying non-operational due to lack of maintenance, same is the case of the six seesaws, one tree swing, triple slide, and the dhum jhula that have been lying non-functional. Only the dragon ride, two Mickey Mouse, and two jumping arenas are operational.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Paresh Mali, a gardener of the park, said, “We are facing a lot of difficulty due to non-payment of salary. We have received our pending salary for three months in December 2020. Following that, we are yet to receive our salary, which once has been pending since January 2022.”

“We are facing extreme difficulty in managing our family expenses are our salary is pending. With a mere monthly income of Rs 10500, we hardly have any savings. We have exhausted all that we have saved during the last three months.” said Mali.

Similar is the view of shop owners of the park. Bittu Sao, one of the food shop operator said, “The rent for each of 12 shops range between Rs 3000 to Rs 6000 per month depending on the size but the majority are lying closed as they are being asked to pay the pending rent of 11 months during which the shops were lying closed due to the closure.”

“How can we pay such a huge amount? We have made zero income during that period. Also, the food items stocked in the shop have gone wasted due to the lockdown.” said Sao.

When the manager of the park, Niwas Kumbhkar was contacted, he said, “We have sent a quotation to the park management committee with details of the repair requirement of different types of equipment, and repair work is likely to begin soon.”

Regarding the pending salary of the employees, he said “We also met the Deputy Development Commissioner, Dasrath Chandra Das recently requesting him to release money from the previous fund of the park management committee to clear pending dues. He has assured to help us out.”

“There will be no issue of the payment of salary of the current month as the park has reopened and is witnessing a footfall of around 500 persons. With the ticket income beginning to roll in, we will be able to make pay them the current month’s salary,” he said.