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Eyeing better park upkeep, Chandigarh MC looking to rope in private players
To offer payment or advertisement space in exchange; MC commissioner suggests audit of money paid to RWAs for maintaining city’s 809 parks
Working towards better upkeep of parks that are not managed by Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), the Chandigarh municipal corporation is going to join hands with private firms.
As part of the pilot, the civic body will try options — offering payment for the parks’ maintenance or free advertisement space at the green belts.
The latter will be similar to firms/agencies maintaining city’s roundabouts in return for free advertisement space at the rotaries.
For paid maintenance, interests will be invited from companies. As MC believes this will be a huge financial burden on it, the plan will be replicated in other sectors only if firms develop parks better than RWAs or MC.
Earlier during the meeting, following complaints by councillors regarding poor maintenance of parks by RWAs, municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra recommended that the amount being paid to associations for park maintenance should be audited.
She said in the past, she had also proposed an agenda to limit the number of parks handed over to each RWA, but it was rejected by the House.
RWAs being paid ₹39 lakh a month
In response to a query by BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi, MC officials shared that the civic body was paying ₹39 lakh every month to a total of 86 RWAs to maintain 809 neighbourhood parks in the city.
In the 2,300 acres under MC’s jurisdiction, there are 1,800 neighbourhood parks and 809 of these (covering around 290 acres) are maintained by 86 RWAs in exchange for ₹4.15 per square km per month.
“Details were sought from MC’s horticulture wing as maintenance of parks leaves much to be desired. The details revealed that only 86 RWAs are maintaining 809 parks in the city’s 21 of the total 35 wards. Interestingly, 10 of the 86 RWAs are getting the lion’s share of ₹23.86 lakh per month, while remaining ₹15 lakh is being paid to 76 RWAs. Though we do not oppose the bills, we expect better maintenance from RWAs who are being paid such a huge amount,” said Joshi.
“AMRUT RWA of Sector 22 is maintaining 44 parks and taking ₹2.84 lakh every month, whereas the RWA of Sector 22 is maintaining 54 parks for ₹2.65 lakh. Similarly, Clean Green RWA of Attawa is getting ₹2.36 lakh,” said Joshi, who advocated handing over maintenance of parks to private firms for free of cost in lieu of advertisement space.
AAP councillor Damanpreet Singh said he had made repeated requests to MC to cancel the MoU with RWAs of his ward as the parks were in a bad shape: “The RWA is getting ₹1 lakh every month, but is doing nothing.”
Councillor proposes golfing area at Sector 4 park, MC chief opposes
A month after MC dismantled the golf practice area created by the Sector-4 RWA at a public park, area councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu again proposed that the park be allowed to be developed as a golf-themed park.
Sidhu said the RWA made no violation or encroachment, and only used a different grass: “Also, we should promote PM’s Fit India and Khelo India initiatives by promoting sport activities.”
The commissioner, however, maintained that developing the park as a golfing area was a clear violation of rules. “RWAs can only take care of plants and grass. The RWA even hired some security guards to restrict people from entering the public area,” Mitra claimed.
Guest house to come up at Sector 47 community centre
The civic body proposed construction of a new community centre after demolishing Janj Ghar in Sector 47 after the earlier plans of setting up a ₹76-crore modern banquet hall by razing the existing building hit a roadblock. Area councillor Jasbir Singh Laddi, however, proposed construction of an MC guest house, which would solve multiple purposes. The proposal was approved by the House and a new project plan will be tabled in the next meeting.
MC to celebrate Ram Mandir inauguration
Despite stiff opposition from the Congress and the AAP, the House approved the agenda to allocate funds and form a committee of councillors to chalk out a detailed plan to celebrate Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22, 2024. Some councillors suggested that the whole city be illuminated with lights.
Opposing the agenda, Congress councillor Sachin Galav said the Congress was not against the celebrations, but a budget estimate and programme schedule should be tabled in the House for approval, so that BJP does not use it as an election ploy.
