Civic body should maintain open spaces

TWO weeks after the contentious open spaces policy was passed by the civic body, citizen activists and politicians came together on Wednesday to discuss changes required in the policy. The citizens and elected representatives agreed to keep maintenance of the open spaces with the civic body and citizens’ associations, while ALMs would monitor the maintenance.

Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner, said that the policy must be scrapped. “It is abduction policy and creates legal rights for third party. The civic body has enough funds to maintain open spaces. The BMC can give contracts for gardening and security purposes with citizens’ associations monitoring the work,” said Gandhi, who spoke at the discussion organised by the H West federation. The discussion was attended by the corporators from Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress.

Vidya Vaidya, a member of H West Federation that organised the discussion on the policy said that the legal framework should be made for the local associations and ALMs to act as a watchdog. The corporators have agreed that all the citizens concerned will be incorporated at the time of reviewing the policy which would be citizen friendly, said Vaidya.

“The maintenance of open spaces should be with the civic body. No third party interest should be created on the plots. The residents’ associations and ALMs should play the role of a watchdog to keep an eye on the maintenance and development of the open spaces,” said BJP MLA Ameet Satam.

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