Satellite Town lacks playgrounds

Rawalpindi : The youngsters living in Satellite Town area now have to travel to other parts of the city for sports activities as their own area now badly lacks playgrounds for last many years.

There was a time when youngsters used to play in playgrounds including Satellite Town College, Agriculture University, Ojhri Camp, Mutton Market ground, Apollo ground, Madina Masjid ground, Letter Box ground, Grill ground and Shamsabad ground.

But now most of these grounds have totally vanished due to rising commercial activities. The population of this area has also increased in last so many years so the provision of sports facilities is fast becoming one of the major issues for the local people. Mansoor Butt, a resident of Satellite Town, said “We used to play cricket in our own areas as so many grounds were available for this purpose. But now we see the youngsters find no such facility as most of the grounds were occupied by the commercial builders.”

“This area was very popular due to sports activities as many major cricket tournaments were annually held and participated by large numbers of teams. Now not a single cricket tournament was held here for last many years,” he said.

Zahoor Ahmad, a resident of B-Block, said there was a time when there were three playgrounds in the vicinity of the Holy Family Hospital including Referendum Ground, Cycle Stand Ground and Dhobi Ghat Ground.

“Now construction work has been done in all these grounds to provide medical facilities to increasing number of patients. Unfortunately, no alternative grounds were provided to the local people and now we see that our youngsters go to other places for sports activities,” he said. He said small kids and young boys are also seen playing on the streets because when they find no ground they would use available spaces for sports purposes.