Bengaluru: Six past amendments allowed specific park land diversions; new Bill proposes 5% blanket provision

The Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Act, 1975, has previously been amended six times to permit the use or alienation of specific portions of government parks for identified public projects. All six alienations have been incorporated as amendments under Section 5 of the Act. However, the new draft Bill introduced during the recently concluded Monsoon Session seeks to allow a general diversion of park land.

The 1975 Act was originally enacted to protect government parks and gardens from being diverted for other uses, but Section 5 was included to provide for specific exemptions. Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday said he would examine and discuss why the proposal to allow diversion of 5% of park land was introduced, and also review what the BJP and previous governments had done, and which lands had been allotted to whom in the past.