JDA to hand over parks to resident welfare bodies

Jaipur: The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) is set to hand over public parks in its periphery to registered Resident Welfare Associations (RWA).
For the same, the corporation has sought proposals from the associations. As per the proposal, the department will directly transfer the money in accounts of associations for depositing water and electricity bills.

A senior official said, “The JMC will carry out the mapping of parks before handing them over to registered resident welfare associations. The payment will made monthly and the balance sheet of expenditure will be audited every month. This will enable JMC to maintain the parks at actual costs.”

JMC claims that its proposal to hand over the parks to registered residents associations would help it to reduce the maintenance cost. However, the idea may not augur well for citizens, but a cash-strapped JMC claims that it has no choice.

“Few people will have control over the public parks and they can utilise it as their private properties. There are already many parks, where children are not allowed to play by associations. People from particular caste and religion can become member of associations and exploit the rights of other citizens,” said Shakti Singh, a resident of Tilak Nagar

There are 948 parks in the city. These have remained unattended as to implement the proposal, the agency has been withholding payments of contractors responsible for maintaining these parks. There are many parks in the city, are in sorry state.

Many believe the new move would improve the condition of these parks. In the absence of guards, many parks have become a breeding grounds for anti-social elements. “As the lights are not switched on, many people have started drinking in these parks till late at night. It has also become unsafe for evening walkers. They permanent guards do not perform thier duties as there is no one to check them. Once RWA’s are established proper monitoring would be done,” said Rahul Vaid, another resident.