Trifurcation effect: City parks go brown, barren
After the trifurcation of MCD, the parks of so-called lush green Delhi have started shrinking as the new corporations are still at the nascent stage and have been unable to recruit more staff or arrange for better maintenance.
If your neighbourhood park has gone barren and dry, blame it on the civic bodies' inability to recruit more gardeners and spend more funds on maintenance. After the trifurcation of MCD, the parks of so-called lush green Delhi have started shrinking as the new corporations are still at the nascent stage and have been unable to recruit more staff or arrange for better maintenance.
Taking up the issue of a greener Delhi, councillors of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) have asked for easier recruitment procedure of gardeners. For the 15,000 parks maintained by the unified MCD, there are only 4,500 gardeners that have been distributed between the three corporations leading to an acute shortage.
According to rules, a gardener must have an experience certificate before he can be hired by the corporations. "Why do you need an experienced gardener to water the plants or to till the land? We can hire one experienced gardener and get him to train fresh ones," said Subhash Arya, Leader of the House, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).
The corporation has sent the proposal to the Urban Development Ministry where it is yet to be cleared.
The SDMC has 6,300 odd parks, North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has around 6,500 parks and East Delhi Municipal Corporation has about 2,500 parks. According to councillors, parks are dry as water harvesting projects have failed because of lack of maintenance. "Around 120 rain water harvesting plants, of which 90 are in south Delhi, were set up but barring a few, all have collapsed because there is no mechanism to clean the units," said Farhad Suri, Congress leader.
Councillors also complain about the multiplicity of authorities in collecting garbage from parks. Residents say that if some parks in the city are in a good shape, it is only because of participation of welfare associations.