PANJIM: The division bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday issued notice to the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and the New Shalom Residents Association, Miramar, on a petition filed by Gourav Jaiswal and Goa Foundation challenging the privatisation of a public park by the housing society.
The petition alleges that in the past several weeks, effective steps have been taken by the residents association to enclose the public park, which has a children’s play section, and turn it into a private leisure area exclusively reserved for the association’s members.
“The Residents Association has put up a green metal fence that carries its name, in addition to a permanent gate that ensures that members of the public are dissuaded from entering and enjoying the park. Members of the public have complained that the security staff of the residents association attempt to dissuade people who wander into the park,” the petitioner stated.
The role of the CCP has come in for criticism as it has enabled the society through a post-facto resolution to carry out works on the park which are exclusively to the gain of the society, including structures for permanent closure.
The PIL petitioners have pleaded with the High Court to direct CCP to open up the park, have the gate removed, the name of Shalom removed from the green metal fence, and to put up a board that announces at the gate that the park is for the benefit of all members of the public.
