Bhubaneswar: Residents have alleged bias on part of the civic body and development authority for development and maintenance of colony parks in different localities.

The city administration was focussed on the development of only the bigger parks, such as Indira Gandhi Park, Biju Patnaik Park, Madhusudan Das Park and Buddha Jayanti Park, spending thousands in their maintenance while turning a blind eye to the colony parks, the residents alleged.

"The administration has amended the opening and closing timings of bigger parks. Those have got play areas, skating rinks, gyms and other facilities. But even the plants are not trimmed regularly at the colony parks," said Nayapalli resident Dibakar Meher.

A visit by The Telegraph to few such parks at Nayapalli, Unit-II, Acharya Vihar and Kharavela Nagar revealed that many of these facilities were closed, while overgrowths had taken over in a few others. The N3 Park at Nayapall, on the other hand, has been encroached upon.

"It is biased of the administration to focus on the bigger parks. We want to spend time here in the evenings as it is not always possible to visit the bigger parks. They should take steps to improve the facilities," said Kharavela Nagar resident Jagannath Ojha.

The development authority maintains 65 parks in different parts of the city. Of these, 40 are smaller parks located in residential areas. The civic body controls 28 colony parks, maintained in collaboration with respective resident welfare associations.

"The colony parks developments are a collaborative effort. While we develop the parks, it is the welfare associations that maintain those. The parks remain closed in several places according to the requirement of local residents," said a civic official.

Acharya Vihar residents said they had never seen the park in their locality open at any time of the day. "There is a senior citizens' forum that takes care of the park. They think that if they open the park, we will ruin the facility. The civic body should look after it," said Purna Sahu, an IAS aspirant living here.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena has assured to look into the matter. "I will direct our environment officials to see if there are any outside influences in opening and maintaining the parks. Such attitude is not going to be tolerated. We will also extend help to the resident welfare associations in proper maintenance of the parks," said Jena.