Karnataka govt ignores pleas, Cubbon Park to reopen to traffic

Two days after the Directorate of the Urban Land Transport recommended a ban on vehicles inside Cubbon Park, the Disaster Management Authority has issued a directive to open the lung space with pre-Covid-19 rules, rankling activists protesting for restrictions on vehicular movement.

Cubbon Park has been closed for traffic since the lockdown was imposed.

The decision to reopen the park was taken at a meeting chaired by the chief secretary. Sources in the government said the issue of Cubbon Park came up for discussion but the concerns raised by the public and government departments were ignored.

Horticulture Minister K C Narayana Gowda had earlier said that Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa would soon take a call on the proposal.

To a question, an official in the Horticulture Department said traffic inside Cubbon Park would be allowed as per the government order.

Heritage Beku, a civic organisation, noted that the BBMP council had unanimously passed an order for a traffic-free Cubbon Park in its meeting in June.

"Lalbagh has the same, if not more, traffic impact of cars circumambulating its periphery, yet it has been traffic-free since 1975. It is distressing to think that Cubbon Park is consciously being surrendered to the cancer of toxic vehicle fumes," it said in a release.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda said that while protecting Cubbon Park was important, banning vehicles might affect the traffic flow in the central business district.

"It may lead to increased congestion in the area which, in turn, means increased emission. A comprehensive plan for CBD is more practical than effecting change in a small pocket," he explained.