Public parks to reopen today in Kakinada

Kakinada: While majority of people will be snoring in their cozy beds, the public parks in the city will be opened at 5 am and when they will get up the latter will be closed by 7 am, according to Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) announcement on Wednesday.

KMC Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar said that the public parks would be reopened from Thursday for the public.

Criticism from the denizens including the news report published in these columns prompted the KMC authorities to open the public parks.

KMC Commissioner said that the parks namely Gandhinagar Park, Janmabhoomi Park, Vivekananda Park and Boat Club Parks would be opened from 5 am to 7 am. He said that the public may utilise only for two hours in the morning.

He instructed that people entering the parks to abide by Covid norms.

Kakinada Poura Samkshema Sangham Convenor Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju criticised that after a gap of nine months, the parks are reopened only to serve the needs of the people for two hours. It is unjustified that during winter, senior citizens as well as children cannot utilise parks during early hours.

He demanded that the parks are not meant for one or two hours but should be opened throughout the day to serve the needs of senior citizens as well as children.

He pointed out that the resolution of the Kakinada Municipal Council for the privatisation is unjust and would not serve the needs of the public as the private parties would demand a fee from visitors every day. Hence, he further demanded that the resolution should be struck off and the idea of privatising the parks should be abandoned. He said that privatisation of parks is against the principles of socialism and democracy.

He added that public parks are meant for people's happiness and not for commercial value.

Citizens' Initiative secretary Duvvuri Subrahmanyam said that unfortunately the Kakinada Municipal Corporation has taken an erroneous, unwise decision in handing the parks to private organisations. In case the parks are managed by the private parties, they would certainly demand user charges for maintenance of the parks. It will be a great punishment to the public for spending time in the parks.