News: Gurugram civic body to take back upkeep work of parks, RWA members protest-01-08-2021
GURUGRAM: The residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in the city have protested the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram’s (MCG) decision to take back the maintenance responsibility of their neighbourhood parks and further handing it over to the ward committees.
At the House meeting held on Saturday, the councillors raised strong objections to the maintenance of the parks by the RWAs and unanimously approved the decision. The councillors said that the responsibility of maintenance of parks and community centres was given to the RWAs because there was no 'House' at that time. They added that they are elected representatives and answerable to people for lack of maintenance in parks and community centres. Mayor Madhu Azad directed the MCG officials to take action on the decision within two days.
At present, there are around 800 parks across the city and they are maintained either by the RWAs or the ward committees, which essentially consist of 8-10 members, including the local councillor, MCG officials, residents and area experts. The RWAs said that these parks will now be neglected as the few parks that are under the ward committees are in a poor state.
“In many wards, dubious ward committees have been formed without inducting the elected RWA representatives. Most of these ward committees consist of family members of councillors, which raise a serious question on their intent. It is a ploy to usurp the rights of genuine stakeholders (residents), to maintain their parks. It will only encourage corruption and hide wrongdoings by forming ward committees of questionable nature. Moreover, they don’t have the merit behind their demand as the parks that are being maintained by ward committee are in very bad shape,” said Lalit Suraj Bhola, general secretary of RWA (Sector 9A).
The RWAs protested against the move and warned of taking the matter to court. RK Yadav, RWA president of Sector 46, said: “These ward committees have no legal status and hold no registration. They have members with no interest in the upkeep of the parks. They grant backdoor entry to employees of the MCG to gain access to funds without any checks, which may lead to armisappropriations. These committees should be dissolved at the earliest.”
Adding that the RWA is an elected and registered body, Yadav said, “We give Income Tax and work for the welfare of residents in a transparent manner.”
