The Times of India   04.08.2012

RWAs not keen on adopting parks, MC still hopeful

CHANDIGARH: It been over
20 days since the Chandigarh municipal corporation passed a proposal to
hand over neighbourhood parks to the resident welfare associations (RWA)
for maintenance and development, but not even a single request has come
from RWAs to adopt these till now.

The present poor condition of
the parks is stated to be the prime reason for not adopting these by
RWAs who feel that it is the civic body’s responsibility to maintain the
parks and if RWAs adopt these it would not be possible to maintain
these in the absence of any machinery or manpower.

The development
has come as a huge embarrassment and set back for the civic body
authorities as they had taken great pains and even framed MoU to hand
over these parks to RWAs.

Chairman P C Sanghi of Federation of
Sectors’ Welfare Association of Chandigarh (FOSWAC), which is umbrella
body of 60 RWAs in the city, said, “We discussed the abovementioned
proposal with the members of RWA in our executive meeting, where over
95% members rejected the idea to adopt parks. The members felt that they
neither have the manpower nor the funds to maintain these. Besides, the
huge finances involved in the exercise would create unnecessary
problems within RWAs.”

Surinder Sharma, president of resident
welfare association of Sector 15, said, “We are already managing the
sanitation system in our area and have hired langoors on our own for the
safety of public, which is basically civic body’s work. Now we don’t
want to take the headache of parks as this is MC’s responsibility.”