Mysore is no more a garden city. Instead, it is becoming a concrete
jungle. On paper, we have more than 600 parks in the city. But only 120
of them have been developed and can be recognized as parks. Since the
land occupied by the parks is extremely valuable real estate, there is
tremendous pressure to encroach. The best example of such encroaching is
People's Park where one can find a PU college, a tennis club, a temple,
a dargah and a private bus stand It is also being used by the
authorities to dump debris. Now another attempt is being made to
encroach on People's Park by building a public library there.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly given judgements to prevent the
encroachment of parks. The law allows only a structure of less than 30
square meters (323 sq.ft.) in a park and that too for watchmen's
quarters. Despite these legal restrictions, our parks are being
systematically decimated. The time has now come for us the citizens to
develop a strategy to prevent the destruction of parks in the city and
to preserve our lung spaces.
Mysore Grahakara Parishat, Mysore Youth Forum, Parisara Samrakshana
Samithi and other NGOs are holding a unique "teach-in" on the need for
lung space for Mysore. This is not a protest, but just a Gandhian type
activity to reflect on how our parks are disappearing, how losing lung
space is harmful, and what people can do about it. It is the hope that
the youth of Mysore with their creative and open minds can come up with
solutions where the older generation has failed.
We are giving a call to the youth of Mysore (high school and college
students) to come to People's Park on Sunday, June 24 at 10AM to
participate in this program which may shape the future of Mysore. Along
with sharing of ideas, there will be painting by young artists, music,
planting of saplings, etc. For more information, call MGP at 2515150