Maintenance of parks to be decided on Saturday - Hindustan Times
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Maintenance of parks to be decided on Saturday

Jan 21, 2020 06:58 PM IST

Gurugram Councillors and senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will be meeting on Saturday to take a final call on transferring the maintenance of parks from residents’ welfare associations (RWA) to the civic body’s ward committee, officials said on Tuesday.

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At present, there are 529 parks in the city, of which 377 are maintained by RWAs and the remaining 152 are maintained by the MCG.

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On January 10, during a meeting, mayor Madhu Azad had asked for suggestions from the councillors on issues and demands that could have been presented to the Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on January 18.

At the meeting, more than one-third of the 35 councillors had decided to transfer the maintenance of 377 parks to the MCG’s ward committee for supervision, as they felt the parks will be better kempt.

Azad met Khattar on January 18 in Chandigarh, in a meeting with all mayors and municipal commissioners of the state, and presented 16 agendas that were approved in the MCG house meetings but are pending at the state level. However, the list did not include any new demand.

The MCG’s ward committee is made up of officials, the councillor and RWA representatives.

Subsequently, representatives of around 60 RWAs had met with MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh on January 13 and submitted him a memorandum, demanding that the maintenance of parks be retained with RWAs.

“A meeting has been called on Saturday, wherein both the senior MCG officials and all councillors will present their respective views on the matter. If the majority of officials and councillors view that the upkeep of the parks should be done by the ward committees, then the proposal will be forwarded to the Haryana government for approval. If not, the matter will remain as it is,” said Azad.

As per Dhruv Bansal, spokesperson for the Gurgaon Citizens’ Council, an umbrella body of all RWAs in the city, the maintenance of parks should remain with the RWAs as they are more aware of localised problems and can take action more swiftly.

“RWAs are much more aware of localised issues in their respective jurisdictions, as opposed to any other larger body, such as a ward committee. It is easier to get work done and be constantly supervised while the residents of the area also do not have to travel too far to complain or list any suggestions for parks,” said Bansal.

Bansal, though, agreed that some parks managed by RWAs may not be up to the mark and these should be identified by the MCG by a survey. “Depending on which parks fare the poorest, the MCG can take up their maintenance,” he said.

Since April 2017, the MCG pays a monthly sum of 3 per square metre to RWAs for maintaining parks.

Next House meeting on February 1

The MCG is scheduled to conduct its next House meeting on February 1 at John Hall in Civil Lines. An invitation in this regard was sent to all councillors and MCG officials on Tuesday.

As per councillors, possible agendas for the meeting include returning all green belts transferred to the GMDA back to the MCG, providing financial assistance to residential societies and condominiums for setting up compost plants, and forming a new MCG wing for preparing estimates of civic projects.

Incidentally, it will be the first House meeting since the one on December 3, 2019, when 13 councillors boycotted the meeting as a protest against their agendas not being included. They subsequently failed in an attempt to impeach the mayor and her two deputies.

The upcoming House meeting is unlikely to feature any of the agendas listed by the rebel councillors, as the same had been submitted by the mayor to chief minister Khattar during their meeting in Chandigarh on January 18.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Kartik Kumar is a correspondent with the Hindustan Times and has covered beats such as crime, transport, health and consumer courts. Kartik currently covers municipal corporation, Delhi Metro and Rapid Metro.

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