Alleging that the city mayor, Mr P. Janardhan Rao, was in a hurry to sanction benefits to his ‘men’ as the present GVMC council term will come to an end in a few days, NGOs and other groups are opposing a move by civic authorities to hand over Lumbini park on the beach road to private parties for development.

“Lumbini park is on the right side of the beach road and falls in CRZ-III area which is in a No Develop-ment Zone. Commercial activities are not permitted as per the orders of the MoEF in the case of the Visakha Bheemili beach road. We hear that handing over the park to a private party will be taken up in Monday’s GVMC council meeting as table agenda. The mayor is in a hurry as his term is going to end in a few days,” alleged Mr K.V. Ramana Rao of Jai Bheem Cultural Associ-ation. He said that both the Supreme Court and High Court had delivered many judgements earlier, on public land where area in-dicated for parks cannot be allotted to private people.