With concerns of safety and aim to prevent anti-social activities at night, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is considering closing its parks after late evening hours.
The decision came during the monthly House, when a councillor of the civic body, Dr Minakshi Gangopadhyay, brought up the subject, saying that entry at night is adversely affecting the atmosphere of the parks. As claimed by the councillor, various kinds of people from different areas are entering into the parks and then carrying out anti-social activities. The atrocities are not coming to an end even after the deployment of police or security personnel. Considering the situation, the councillor of ward 12 proposed to close the gates of the KMC parks at night.
Responding to the proposal, KMC mayor Firhad Hakim asked the councillors to submit the list of parks and the suggestive time at which those could be closed. He also cited an example of a park at Chetla that gets closed at 8 pm. The mayor also pointed out that the points of iron grills or other kinds of boundaries making entry possible would also be repaired to prevent entry after the closure of gates at night.
The discussion at the monthly meeting turned chaotic when BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh, while adding to Dr Minakshi Gangopadhyay’s proposal, raised safety concerns as a representative of the municipal corporation mentioning the recent incident of alleged attack on Sushant Ghosh, councillor of ward 108. The KMC chairperson, Mala Roy asked the councillor to stick to the civic issues. As Mr Ghosh continued, his mike was switched off. Alleging that his proposals were not being included during the monthly meeting, the BJP councillors, Sajal Ghosh and Meena Devi Purohit staged a walkout from the House.
Reacting to the allegations, the KMC chairperson said that Mr Ghosh was given a warning to stick to civic issue and not discuss matters pertaining to outside the monthly House but he continued. “Questions need to be asked as per the rule of the civic body,” pointed out the South Kolkata MP. Echoing the chairperson, mayor Firhad Hakim said that any question cannot be raised anywhere.
Meanwhile, the KMC’s annex building named Chaplin Bhawan was inaugurated today. As informed by the mayor, the building has been restored at the cost of Rs 11 crores. Around six to seven departments that are getting cluttered due to lack of sufficient space would be transferred to the new building.