Gurugram civic body hands over upkeep of Sector 27 parks to residents’ group

The corporation will release funds as per prescribed norms to the association for paying salaries to gardeners, procuring water and settling the electricity bill. The corporation will pay ₹3 per square metre per month to the RWA.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) handed over all parks in Sector 27 to the residents’ welfare association (RWA) on Tuesday for maintenance. The MCG’s horticulture department had called upon the members of the association to take possession of all the five parks.

In June, the RWA had written to the MCG’s horticulture department to hand over the parks to it for maintenance. (Yogendra Kumar/HT Photo)

The corporation will release funds as per prescribed norms to the association for paying salaries to gardeners, procuring water and settling the electricity bill. The corporation will pay ₹3 per square metre per month to the RWA.

Dr GD Tyagi, the president of Sector 27 RWA, said, “There are five parks in our sector developed by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP, earlier Haryana Urban Development Authority) 15 years ago. The HSVP transferred all its sectors to the MCG two years ago for maintenance of civic amenities and colony parks. However, the condition of the parks deteriorated in the absence of malis, tree plantations, etc.”

In June, the association had written to the MCG’s horticulture department to handover parks to the RWA for maintenance.

“The MCG wanted to hand over all its parks across the city to a private contractor through a tender, but it failed to do so. The MCG had floated a tender in June, but no one applied for the same. The allocation of ₹3/square metre is too less to maintain the greenery. We had also requested for ₹10/square metre, but the corporation denied our request. We have to maintain greenery at any cost because parks belong to us and we have paid money to the government,” said Mahinder Singh, a resident of the sector.

There are around 600 parks in the city under the corporation, of which nearly 200 parks are being maintained by the RWAs.

Ajay Nirala, the executive engineer of the horticulture department of MCG, said, “The RWA gave us an affidavit that it would maintain the greenery, undertake regular plantation and appoint gardeners, for which the MCG releases funds.”

Dharam Sagar, the president of the federation of residents’ welfare association of urban estate, said, “ ₹3/square metre is less, yet RWAs maintain parks as their own properties, much better than the corporation.”