Why 350 parks in Hubballi-Dharwad are little more than wastelands

Hubballi: Taking a cue from their Bengaluru counterpart, the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation tried to rope in residents’ welfare organisations to maintain garden and parks. Then came a plan to use corporate social responsibility funds to develop them. As of now, of the 421 gardens and parks in the twin cities, 71 are maintained by HDMC while the remaining are yet to be developed.
Most parks in residential areas are little more than open ground overrun with weeds and shrubs. There is no fencing even to demarcate the park.
Former mayor Shivu Hiremath, who had floated a plan to develop gardens and parks with CSR funds, said: “I had a meeting with representatives of companies in this regard, but by the time it could materialise, my tenure ended. I don’t know what happened to that initiative after I left.”
“HDMC sets aside Rs 1 crore-Rs 1.5 crore in its budget every year but this meagre amount is not serving any purpose,” said Satish Merunde, a resident of Silver Park. “HDMC seems to have forgotten its basic duty, given the pathetic condition of the gardens. Our locality has just one park and it is not developed. For morning walks, we to Srinivas Nagar where the park has been developed,” said Srilekha Chouhan, a resident of Shimla Nagar.
HDMC commissioner Suresh Itnal said additional provisions have been made this time around to develop parks. “For maintenance of gardens by the Nere Hore Samiti, HDMC has chalked out guidelines and it has been sent for administrator approval,” Itnal said. “Twelve residents’ welfare associations are already maintaining gardens and we have received plenty of requests from other associations as well in this regard. The real problem is to develop the gardens. We have asked the horticulture department to develop and maintain some of the gardens. For CSR fund, we are preparing estimations,” he said.