Even as the Municipal Corporation of Karimnagar is making all efforts to make grade to be included in the Smart City list to get Central funds for the development of the town, the town is lacking in one major prerequisite of well-maintained Municipal Park.
On paper there are 44 municipal parks in the town, however, only five parks are visible at Mankammathota, Vavilalapalli, Housing Board Colony, Bank Colony and Alkapuri Colony.
These have compound walls and some play items and chairs for the benefit of children and senior citizens.
No protection
Five municipal park lands have been encroached in Chaitanyapuri Colony, Telephone Quarters, Buttirajaram Colony, Christian Colony, TNGOs colonies in Bhagathnagar and Kothirampur and Vinayaka Market.
The remaining parks are under threat of encroachment with support of local elected representatives.
None of the parks, except for five, have compound walls or fencing to protect its land, despite the fact that during a meeting with all the municipal commissioners and mayors and chairpersons in August 2016 Minister for Municipal Administration K. Taraka Rama Rao had directed the urban local bodies to protect the municipal parks from encroachments by taking up plantation along its boundaries.
Plan to move HC
The locals have been lodging complaints about the encroachment of municipal parks, but in vain.
The TNGOs housing society had allocated sites for municipal parks in its layouts in Bhagathnagar and Kothirampur, but the authorities failed to protect them from encroachment.
The Lok Satta district unit, which had been crusading for the protection of public parks from encroachments, had decided to approach the High Court to protect the parks and create some lung space for the children and senior citizens in the fast growing city.
“We had made umpteen numbers of petitions to the MCK authorities over the years, but no action has been taken to protect the park lands from encroachments,” its president N. Srinivas said. The people of Karimnagar town would not have any open space for recreation and walking with the spate of encroachments of all available open spaces, the Lok Satta leader said.
Mayor S. Ravinder Singh said that the Municipal Corporation had decided to launch a special drive for the protection of all the municipal parks by constructing compound walls and equipping them with recreational and play items very soon.
