Hyderabad: Major parks such as Indira Park, Jalagam Vengal Rao Park, and Chacha Nehru Park do not have sufficient staff to protect or rescue visitors during an emergency or during an untoward incident.
Lack of security has also resulted in damage to or theft of equipment and machinery at open gyms.
Under a pilot project, the municipal corporation has established open gyms at AS Rao Nagar Park, Imlibun Park, Krishan Kant Park, Indira Park, Gulmohar Park and Nehru Nagar Park, but the equipment is often trashed or stolen.
When queried about this, a senior GHMC official denied there was any deficiency in the staff in city parks. He said that most major city parks are very safe, yet he admitted that robbery and damage of park property does occur.
He said hacksaws have been used to cut the equipment at the gyms and carry it away.
He said it’s difficult to monitor open gyms because the parks are spread over a vast area. The open gym concept might be a success in Delhi but it is not viable in a city like Hyderabad, as it requires 24/7 monitoring.
Maybe if all the security staff shown on the books were present at their duty, monitoring would not be a problem.
Despite the problems the corporation has decided to install 40 gyms in various city parks. In the last six months, though, only six have been established.
