GUJRAT: The district administration has decided to hand over the control of the Shahbaz Sharif Park and green belts along the Old GT Road and other arteries of the city to the recently established local bodies. The park will be administered by the district council while the municipal corporation will be responsible for maintenance of the green belts.

The decision was made in a meeting in the deputy commissioner’s office the other day after the public complaints against the constantly deteriorating condition of these green areas for the last two months, particularly in the wake of the transfer of power in the local bodies from the civil servants to the elected representatives.

Earlier, the park and green belts were being looked after by a beautification and development committee, headed by PML-N leader Haji Aurangzaib Butt with the then District Coordination Officer Liaqat Ali Chatha and the administrator of Gujrat Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) as its members who represented the district government in that committee.

Though the district council lacks requisite machinery and human resource for the upkeep of the biggest park in the Gujranwala division but the municipal corporation has been asked to assist in terms of the technical support and machinery for the purpose.

Official sources told Dawn that a joint committee to oversee the maintenance and managerial issues of the park and green belts had been constituted with Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa as its head and District Council Chairman Tanveer Kotla, Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood, Deputy Director Finance and Development Chaudhry Asghar, the vice chairmen and deputy mayor of the district council and the corporation as its members.

The sources said that following the elimination of the district government and TMAs, the administration did not have financial resources to continue these projects and it could do so with the financial assistance of private sector after handover of the local bodies to the elected representatives but these projects would have suffered a lot more if such a decision was not made.

Another official said both the district council and the municipal corporation were initially reluctant in taking up the responsibility of the park and green belts, particularly the district council that did not have any logistics such as machinery and human resource to maintain the park whereas the corporation was of the view that the green belts were mostly developed along the highways which were not in its ambit.

However, the administrative officials convinced the chairman and mayor to take over these projects as the government had spent huge funds on them. As a result, it was decided in the meeting at DC office that both the district council and municipal corporation would cooperate with each other in maintenance of these areas.

DC Randhawa said the Shahbaz Sharif Park was located in the limits of the district council whereas the green belts were mainly located within the limits of the municipal corporation and as per law these institutions had been asked to take these responsibilities to protect them.

Aurangzaib Butt, chairman of the city beautification committee, said it was the committee that had developed green belts along 14km Old GT Road, entry and exit points of the city along the bypass, Rehman Shaheed Road, Jalalpur Jattan Road, Bhimbher Road, Ramtalai Road and beautified the main squares like Jail Chowk, Servis Morr, Katchery Chowk, GTS Chowk and Sargodha Road Chowk under the private-public partnership.

Mr Butt added that the committee had also executed projects like the Wall of Gujrat and Baab-i-Gujrat, renovation of the historical municipal committee building, widening of roads and work on the Ring Road. He said the committee had been concerned about the conditions of the park and green belts that were being encroached upon by vendors due to the negligence of the authorities while grass, flowers and plants were no more there. He suggested that only the establishment of Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) could save the public parks and green belts.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2017