Park for the public not private property

Team Herald

PANJIM: A division bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa, comprising Justice N M Jamdar and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan, disposed off a PIL filed by Gourav Jaiswal and Goa Foundation challenging the privatisation of a public park by Shalom Housing Society after taking detailed steps to ensure it was restored to the public.

When the matter came up before the High Court, the Shalom lawyers told the court that they had spent a lot of money on beautifying the protecting the park. The gate, they told the court, was to prevent stray cows from entering the garden and damaging the plants.

“Since the issue was not clear as to who will be maintaining the garden, on 20 August 2018, the learned Additional Government. Advocate submitted that directions have been issued to the Forest Department to take charge of the garden and it was stated that a revolving gate is fixed. The learned Additional Govt. Advocate had stated that an affidavit placing this position on record would be filed,” the order states It further states that, “Since the grievances raised in this PIL Writ Petition have been sufficiently redressed and the State Government has undertaken the responsibility of ensuring that the Park will be maintained and made accessible to general public, we do not feel it necessary to keep the PIL Writ Petition pending. The Petition is, accordingly, disposed of.”