Civic officials, when they threw open a sports complex earlier this year, had claimed the gro­u­nd would serve as a boon for Mumbra's young athletes. These claims, however, have been proved to be rub­bish, and we mean that literally, as a report in this paper has revealed. The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is now using the ground as a scrap yard and sportspersons have little to no access to it.

The ground lies littered with discarded hoarding material, broken iron grilles and other scrap items. In this report, sportspersons complained that they are allowed access to the ground only for a few hours in the morning. So, obviously, their dreams of training in Mumbra, instead of travelling to Thane each time, have been dashed.