The city’s civic body has expanded the time window when the public can access public parks in the city by two-and-a-half hours. Parks will now be accessible from 1.30 p.m. to 8 p.m., instead of 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the second half of the day.
Earlier, the city’s civic body had restricted access to parks from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Several civic activists and Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) had been demanding that the public must be allowed to access parks throughout the day.
Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath issued an order on Thursday expanding the time window. The order says parks will be accessible from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., but adds that a three-and-a-half hour time window from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. will be reserved for park maintenance and during this window, the public will not be allowed to access the parks. Thus, effectively, the parks will now be accessible to the public from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning and from 1.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the latter half of the day.
Green activist Vinay Sreenivasa, while welcoming the expansion of the time window, said they failed to understand why the civic body needs to bar the public while maintaining the park and demanded the parks be accessible throughout the day
However, Mr. Giri Nath said allowing the public during park maintenance earlier had created issues with several people quarreling with the staffers over water falling on them and other such issues. “We have expanded the time window to the maximum we can,” he said.
