Chennai: It has been a little rainfall in the last two days but most parks in the city have been out of limits for locals due to lack of maintenance and debris.
Water logging, fallen trees, damaged equipment and poor maintenance are common sights in Nageswara Rao Park in Mandaveli, Independence Day Park in Nungambakkam and Sivan Park in K Nagar.
Instead of cleaning the park after a wet spell and opening it, the contractor who cared for public facilities has locked it.
Some of these parks are managed by the association of housing welfare, corporations and non-profit organizations.
In accordance with Chennai Corporation, there are 702 parks in the city, where only 54 are managed by them.
About 554 parks were outsourced to contractors in 2019 and the Civic body claimed to have received 1 CR in revenue from Playfield just after this.
The rest is managed by the Contractor and Housing Welfare Association.
“In the south, from 330 parks, 323 is open.
Only seven are closed due to stagnation of water and the problem of falling trees.
It will be cleaned and oepned to the public on Monday.
Only two in the middle area were closed,” said an official.
However, in fact, some parks are not open to the public.
Rekha S, a resident of K K Nagar, said he visited Sivan Park twice in the last two days.
“They did not allow us inside.
Watchman said they had not cleaned the debris of the tree …
they were worried that some branches could fall on pedestrians,” he said.
Another common problem in most parks is a rotten odor from the lack of toilet maintenance after rain.
In Nageswara Rao Park, because of water stagnation, the smell of the toilet was unbearable, the local residents said.
The park maintenance contract was given in 2019 to a contractor for a period of five years.
There are many problems with the way tenders given and the functioning of these parks under contractors.
Even though they should appoint three sweepers, two guards and other staff, in most parks, this has not been done.
“It was one reason why more residents were asked to come forward to adopt the park.
We have received many applications but then the pandemic struck.
We will see this,” said an official.