The usual euphoria of the season has gone missing from the playgrounds of the city this summer. With the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) summer camps going in for a low profile, the buzz of scores of children practising their favourite games is not on witness at the small and big play areas of the city.
For last several decades, the annual summer camps have been a major event drawing thousands of children thronging the stadiums and playgrounds where the civic body organised the high profile event. Starting mid-April with hugely attended march past once the schools close for vacation, the camps used to be held often with packed play areas till the end of May.
This summer, however, the civic body preferred not to publicise the run-up to the camp schedule leaving several children and parents in confusion. “I was checking for information about the camps to enrol my son but the GHMC does not seem to be organising sports camps this summer,” said Sreekanth Reddy, a resident of Tarnaka.
Absence of a wider dissemination of schedules on sporting activities offered and venues and timings, the way done every year, has ended up many like Mr.Reddy assuming that the camps were not on. “The other day I saw few children playing at PJR Stadium but my effort to get information if the camps are on or not proved futile,” pointed out Govind Naik, a resident of Madinaguda.
Senior officials while not able to explain absence of the usual publicising of summer camps however sought to maintain that activities were happening across 700 playgrounds of the city. “Apart from cricket and swimming, coaching is being offered in Skating, Sepaktakraw and Malkhamb and hundreds of children are participating.,” said GHMC Officer on Special Duty (OSD)-Sports, S.R.Prem Raj.
The GHMC put the number of camp participants this summer at 60,000 in 50 disciplines. But, those in the field dispute the figure and said the whole affair had been tepid since start. “We were busy with tax collection and now with ‘Swachh Hyderabad’ programme. No appropriate attention was paid to the camps,” rued an officer, seeking anonymity.
Hence, the grand opening of the sports camps done every year with either the Mayor or the GHMC Commissioner inaugurating them in Victory playground and other senior officers/local politicians at other centres has been dispensed with this year leading to much confusion. Is it any wonder the number of children in the grounds has dwindled from a high of nearly a lakh, a couple of years ago?!
GHMC summer camps, the most popular activity for scores of school children during the annual vacations, started on a small note with just about 1,500 participants in the late 1960s. From just about six to seven, the event kept accumulating disciplines over the years to offer around 50 disciplines and drawing a lakh and more children and at times still more, around 1.30 lakhs as in the year 2012.
Last year too, the camps were delayed and unofficially conducted for a large part of the summer with the officials citing the Election Code as the reason. Only towards mid-May they were given a boost and ended towards the month-end.
