Govt to double financial aid to maintain parks

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

The Delhi government has decided to double the financial assistance to Rs 2 lakh per acre provided annually to the RWAs and NGOs registered with the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society (DPGS) for upkeep of parks and gardens across the city.

The government would also scrap the provision of granting money for maintenance of parks depending on the type of colonies from A to H categories as classified by Municipal Corporations for levying of property tax.

A new policy on the same will be rolled out soon, said CM Arvind Kejriwal in an interactive session with representatives of around 260 RWAs and NGOs on Sunday at his residence in the capital.

Kejriwal requested the participants to adopt more parks to undertake greening activities and engage more locals in the maintenance and development of parks ahead of the government’s launch of “Delhi’s biggest ever plantation drive” next month — details of which will be made public soon.

"We will involve RWAs, NGOs, corporates and other registered bodies to adopt and maintain 18,000 parks in Delhi," said Kejriwal urging residents to come forward with children to join the government's "plantation drive" whose details are being worked out.

Kejriwal also invited RWAs for public consultation on CCTV cameras next Sunday.

With the new policy, the assistance would be uniform across Delhi with 90 per cent assistance coming from the government while 10 per cent to be borne by the RWAs and NGOs, Kejriwal noted.

Currently, parks and gardens located in colonies falling under A category get 30 per cent of assistance with progressive assistance up to 100 per cent in case of H category colonies.

Several participants raised multiple issues, including extensive and cumbersome documentation in receiving the aid, problems in obtaining permission for pruning trees and plants, scarcity of water and inadequacies in infrastructure in the parks, having tree guards to protect plantation and water harvesting, among others. To which, Kejriwal assured to ease the documentation for release of the assistance and help with the support of MLAs Development Fund in undertaking development activities in the parks such as installing gym, swings, pathways etc.

In the financial year 2017-18, 261 RWAs received financial assistance to the tune of around Rs 1.63 crore to maintain 1,164 parks covering around 370 acre area.

The CM requested the participants to get their damaged borewells and motors fixed with the government's support in the next 10 days.