Hyde Park restricted for children

There is a shortage of public playgrounds in Colombo City, and all city dwellers will have to share the few available playgrounds and allow all children to use them

However, Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar is of the opinion that public playgrounds cannot be confined to children in a particular area and that playgrounds are open to everyone in Colombo

By Yohan Perera

Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has decided to change the long-standing practice of allowing the children living in Slave Island and other nearby areas to play at Hyde Park on selected days, an opposition member of the council said yesterday.

Opposition Member of Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Arshad Nizamdeen told Daily Mirror that some children were sent away while they were playing at Hyde Park recently. “We requested that Children from Slave Island and Maradana areas be allowed to play at Hyde Park on Poya days and on Sundays. CMC has heeded our request years ago, and children were allowed to play on the given days for many years. However, the present administration has not allowed this and the children were chased away,” he added. Opposition Member M. H. Mansil told Daily Mirror that CMC officials got the police to come to the park and send the children out of Hyde Park.

“We are sure that the CMC ruling party members are behind the move,” he said.

However, Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar is of the opinion that public playgrounds cannot be confined to children in a particular area and that playgrounds are open to everyone in Colombo. “There is a shortage of public playgrounds in Colombo City, and all city dwellers will have to share the few available playgrounds and allow all children to use them,” the Mayor said during the CMC sessions when the opposition members raised this issue. She assured that steps will be taken to resolve the issue with Hyde Park.

However, the opposition members said no satisfactory solution has been found to the issue to date.