More than 15,000 parks, including over 1,000 bigger than an acre, but just 42 guards and not a single CCTV camera under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) – this is the security challenge facing the civic body’s parks as it moves to strengthen safety following last week’s gang rape of a 17-year-old at Aastha Kunj.
“Initially, all the entry and exit points will be covered by cameras. “We are facing a financial crunch and there are not even enough gardeners. Officials said the two measures are being prioritised after the September 21 incident. MCD has approached the Delhi government to assess the feasibility of installing CCTV cameras in around 1,000 of its larger parks, and the civic body is also preparing a proposal to deploy more security guards. A circular issued on September 25, seen by HT, said the directions were issued in compliance with instructions from the lieutenant governor on ensuring the safety of women and children, cleanliness and a safe environment in parks. Of the 6,433 sanctioned gardener posts for municipal parks, around 67% are vacant. MCD is currently meeting part of the shortfall through about 3,000 contractual gardeners. Ashok Bhasin, who heads the North Delhi Residents Welfare Federation, said 90% of MCD parks in North Delhi have no security arrangement and several streetlights are broken.
Also Read I ‘Delhi park gangrape accused threatened to call kin, I said go ahead’: Survivor in FIR A senior MCD official said the initial CCTV plan would focus on entry and exit points, though the larger challenge would be monitoring the resultant footage. But the government will have to decide the monitoring mechanism and who all will have access to this camera feed,” the official said, adding: “In two eight-hour shifts, these parks will need around 2,000 guards, for which a proposal is being prepared. But officials said the biggest hurdle is resources. Given our resource constraints, we are unable to hire the number of guards we need, so the Delhi government will have to help us out,” a second municipal official said. “Only some larger parks have a few guards and that too is inadequate,” he added. Officials said the challenge is particularly acute in smaller neighbourhood parks, which may be surrounded by homes but still have poorly visible corners.
