KARNATAKA GOVERNMENT'S MOVE TO SET ASIDE 5% OF PARKS & GARDENS IN THE STATE FOR "OTHER PURPOSES' IS NOT A GOOD MOVE.

Environmental groups,urban planners & citizen activists have begun mobilising support against the govt's move to set aside upto  5% of parks & gardens to be used for other purposes.The state cabinet has approved a bill to amend the Karnataka Govt.parks(preservation) Act,1975 to this effect. A coalition of organisations & citizens have also written to the Chief Minister Shri.D.K.Shivakumar seeking withdrawal of the proposed amendment,mentioning that the parks cannot be treated as vacant land. Infact,parks & Gardens add beauty to the city & are lung spaces for our city called as "Garden City". Bengaluru has only 3000 acres of park space for 1.4 crore people,where as it should have 30,000 acres,as per national benchmarks.  In this context, the observations of Mr.A.N.Yellappa Reddy,Former Secretary,Department of Forests is very relevant & timely.He says," Once a general principle is introduced permitting portions of protected parks to be made available for infrastructure,what begins as an exception today can slowly become an administrative practice tomorrow".  While commercialisation of public parks & gardens  should NOT be allowed,may be government can think of building toilets &  children play area.