Events in Cubbon Park with over 20 in attendance need prior permission

The officials said that violations of the guidelines will attract fines. 
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

The Cubbon Park administration has said that any event organised inside the park with over 20 participants need prior permission from the Horticulture Department and in some cases, even permission from the police. This comes after the row over organisers of Cubbon Reads, a reading community, being detained on Saturday, as several turned up for a Secret Santa party.

“It is to be noted here that on December 21, an organisation, Cubbon Reads, had organised an event which clearly violated this guideline by assembling more than 500 – 600 participants with stacks of gift packs for the Secret Santa event in Cubbon Park. This was informed to the organisers immediately and the event unfortunately had to be closed abruptly. This inconvenience would have been avoided if prior permission was taken from the concerned authority,” said G. Kusuma, Deputy Director, Cubbon Park, Horticulture Department. The officials also noted that going forward the violation of these guidelines will attract fines.

In an Instagram post, the organisers of Cubbon Reads had shared that they were threatened and demeaned by the authorities and were let go after they issued an apology letter. In reply to another post shared by the community on Sunday asking people to share their “stories of harassment by the authorities of the park”, several people alleged that even smaller groups were evicted from the park without proper reasons.

“We faced an interruption from the authorities as well the last time we had our session. We were just 16 of us, sitting in a circle and talking peacefully, when a guard interrupted us and asked us to disperse. We spoke with a “supervisor” and tried to explain that neither are we a business selling anything, nor are we creating any other nuisance, but they just wouldn’t listen,” said Cubbon Designs, a community of designers.