The Deccan Chronicle 17.09.2010
Parks galore, but citizens denied place to unwindSept. 16: It’s alright to boast about your neighbourhood park to guests from less green cities, but what if they should want to take a walk under the shade of its trees some time during the day ? Chances are you may be left red-faced with embarrassment as entry to about 80% of parks in the city is barred after 9.30 am in the morning, after the early morning walkers and joggers have come and gone.
Even holiday parks in residential areas are open only for a few hours in the mornings and evenings as the BBMP has banned public entry to most of the 1,000 and more green lungs in its jurisdiction after 9.30 am. Parks maintained by some Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) are no better and are fast turning into their private gardens.
Sample this. The secretary of a RWA in Indiranagar keeps the park gates locked and the key in his house the whole day, declaring it out of bounds for the people of the area for the major part of the day.
The traffic theme park on St Marks Road is closed to visitors after 5.30 pm. But a park in Koramangala takes the cake. It has a board which says visitors must walk only in a clock-wise direction!
Neither the BBMP nor the RWAs, which are responsible for curtailing people's entry to the parks, are very popular among exercise enthusiasts, looking for quiet 'me' time in the city. “Parks are common areas and cannot be shut during the day. Where in the world are parks closed for the whole day?” asks Vinay Sreenivasa, a member of Hasiru Usiru, a voluntary organisation, who says the practice of closing parks for an entire day, is unacceptable.
“If there were ward committees in the city they could decide when the parks should open and close,” he feels. Katyayani Chamraj of CIVIC suggests the BBMP should not let the local corporators and residents' associations manage the parks but directly handle the responsibility.
“If there is a fear that parks may become grounds for crime if they are left open the whole day, the authorities should provide them more security, but not deny people access to them,” she stresses.
It should not be a case of a park so near, but yet so far away for people of the Garden City, who are already breathing in polluted air as Bengaluru loses more of its green cover to development, emphasise the activists.
