The Def col parks in my childhood were famous for outdoor games but due to few wrong decisions, almost all of them were converted to beautified parks which were only meant for walking by certain age groups. The results are as follows: • Most of these parks are now “owned” by a set of people for many years under PPP scheme which allows them to even get a monthly payment for the Mali etc. Most of these so-called dictators are not allowing children to play games like cricket, football etc and if kids try to play then they are arrogantly shunted away from the park.
• Most of the growing kids are getting obese and visiting doctors or gyms to get back to shape; or pressurized to enroll in sports academies.
• Some of these parks even charge a monthly “fee” to use the public parks and if not paid then abused in various ways which is not the way to keep residents away.
• These parks are at the mercy of donations, or kindness of the politicians who sometimes provide few facilities like swings etc if they get invites in park functions; due to these issues the parks are in poor conditions and need repairs of boundary walls, lights, walking strips and plants.
Any solutions:
* Def col has more than 30 small and big parks which be used for sports as well as walking. The smaller parks may be kept for walking, sitting, plants etc and the bigger parks may be used for outdoor sports to keep our residents fit; some of them may be used for Dog-walking as we have more than 1000 pet parents in the colony;
* The RWA may coordinate with the concerned authorities to allocate more budgets for these parks for maintenance etc
* There should not be any charge for the residents to use these public parks and if anyone tries to push them for the charges, police complaints may be lodged to set these people; The Kids and youth will start using these parks and we may develop more Sachins, Rohit’s and Bumrahs in the coming years.
