As the space for children’s recreation in the city continues to shrink owing to concretisation, the National Green Tribunal on Monday came to the rescue of a tot lot in South Delhi’s Gulmohar Park a part of which the municipal corporation was bent upon encroaching.
The Tribunal restrained the South Delhi Municipal Corporation from carrying on construction of toilets and staff room inside the tot lot, which measured around 0.2 acres. The civic body had some time ago started construction of toilets and room for the horticulture staff in the tiny park.
The Gulmohar Park Journalists’ Colony Welfare Association had moved the Tribunal saying the land in question had been earmarked for a park in the layout of this society which was created in 1970s by journalists.
The SDMC had in turn argued that the Master Plan provided for such construction inside parks.
However, the argument was countered by Residents’ counsel Aditya Prasad who said the Master Plan does not allow such construction in tot-lots but only in bigger/ community parks for equipment, toilets and guard rooms. The Tribunal noted that the civic body failed to produce anything to support its claim while the Residents’ association had placed before it a copy of the plan approved by the DDA dated January 30, 1969, in which the area is a tot lot.
“Obviously, we have to hold that this is not a community park but a tot lot where no area of it can be put to use for any type of construction,” the Tribunal said.
It also directed that the tot lot be restored to its original state and all the construction material, debris, etc., be removed.
Association president Jayant Shakdher said: “Finally, the SDMC could see how it was trying to hoodwink one and all by saying that the Master Plan allowed it to carry out such construction in parks. The Master Plan nowhere said any and every park.”
The association had all along maintained that under the garb of creating civic amenities, the municipal corporation was creating space for its staff by destroying the environment of the park and the room under construction would be nothing but a “merry making point”.
Mr Prasad said the civic agency was doing the construction in the name of constructing toilets when two toilets are in place right across the park near a convenient centre. The agency was spending over Rs. 8 lakh on it.
He also said that a work order issued by the agency only talked of construction of toilet for staff of the horticulture department and that it nowhere said that the same had to be made inside the tot lot.
A letter was sent to the Lieutenant Governor by Somnath Bharti, MLA in October, 2014 pursuant to which the LG had called for a report and directed that no construction shall take place, but in vain.
The tribunal restrains SDMC from constructing toilets and staff room inside the tot lot
