The announcement comes as a stark contrast to the Rs5-crore provision made for open spaces in each ward in the 2009 budget.
City’s open spaces have taken a back seat on the priority list of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) this year. As per the civic body’s budget estimates for 2010-11, there will be no new gardens developed in the city this year due to paucity of funds.
The announcement comes as a stark contrast to the Rs5-crore provision made for open spaces in each ward in the 2009 budget.
The revision of pay scale for the BMC employees, based on the recommendations of the sixth pay commission, has forced the civic body to cut down on expenditure that is not mandatory. According to the corporation, developing theme parks is unwarranted spending.
Municipal commissioner Swadhin Kshatriya in his budget statement, on Wednesday, said: “It is not an obligatory duty of the BMC to create and maintain gardens. With the backdrop of the current delicate financial situation of the BMC, it has become mandatory to exercise a stringent control over such discretionary duties. This would lead to paucity of funds required for performing obligatory duties of the BMC in the future.”
Thus, the civic body will withhold all new projects, like theme gardens, but will complete ongoing projects that have been taken up in 2009.
Neera Punj, convener, Cityscape, an NGO fighting for open spaces in the city, said: “I agree with the municipal chief that to maintain and create theme gardens there will be cost escalation. However, citizens are requesting the commissioner to reconsider securing of open spaces by fencing, levelling and providing a gardener and a security guard. Scrap the idea of theme gardens, we do not want them. We don’t need fountains, or a Zen garden, we just need the basics.”
Punj further added that for developing a garden, it’s the initial cost of Rs11 lakh per acre which is high. But, from the second year onwards the maintenance cost comes down to Rs5 lakh per acre.
“We need gardens because the depletion of open spaces is at a deplorable low. Gardens are the lungs of the city and hence they become mandatory as per the building norms of the government. As per the national building norms, there should be 4 acres of open space per thousand people but we have just 0.03 acres of open space per thousand people,” Punj said.
Senior citizen and member of Citizen’s Forum G-North, Ashok Rawat, feels that even though creating and maintaining gardens may not be a discretionary duty of the BMC, it’s obligatory.
“Protecting the environment and promotion of ecological aspects to control emission of green house gases, which in turn promotes the supply of oxygen that can act as the lungs for the polluted city, are obligatory duties of the civic body,” Rawat said.
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