{"id":14532,"date":"2013-10-24T21:06:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T15:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.entecity.com\/?p=14532"},"modified":"2013-10-24T21:06:38","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T15:36:38","slug":"public-spaces-in-trivandrum-on-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/public-spaces-in-trivandrum-on-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Public spaces in Trivandrum on decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agitations and processions are a very common occurrence in Trivandrum<\/a>. Protests staged by political parties and cultural procession by various organization are carried out occasionally in the city. But of late, Trivandrum city finds these public gathering, too difficult to handle.<\/p>\n

The shrinking spaces for public gathering are denying the rights of people to voice their concerns and stage protests or celebrations. Shrinking spaces also causes city residents to get caught in traffic all day causing them to reach office or home late or miss appointments.<\/p>\n

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Kowdiar Square<\/p><\/div>\n

The capital city has always been a nerve centre of political and cultural activities. Large areas of land turned into space for public gatherings and articulation of ideas and ideals. The Putharikandam Maidan, Gandhi Park at East Fort; Martyr\u2019s Square at Palayam; Rajendra Maidan at Pettah; and Attakulangara Maidan are some of the preferred destinations of political, social and cultural organizations. Putharikandam Maidan used to be the regular venue for an annual exhibition organised by the City Corporation. Famous circus companies, drama troupes and individual shows which include street magicians, vendors, snake charmers and small-time circuses coexist comfortably in the vicinity. These programmes used to draw a dedicated audience.<\/p>\n

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VJT Hall Trivandrum<\/p><\/div>\n

However, when development became the top priority of the city, various agencies began occupying public spaces leaving little for public gatherings. The private agencies entrusted with capital city development are fixing a rent for prime city spaces without a public consensus. The rent for the University Senate Hall<\/a> and VJT Hall<\/a> has been hiked manifold. Political leaders said that imposing a rent for public places such as the Martyr\u2019s Square is only aimed at silencing public protests.<\/p>\n

Developing alternative venues is the best option for hosting public gathering.\u00a0 The proposal for converting the Shangumugham beach into a destination for public functions is also mooted. A Capital city should have space for the people to host cultural procession or gather to voice their protest.<\/p>\n

Discussions are being carried out for the new master plan for the city. Whether this issue will be addressed, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agitations and processions are a very common occurrence in Trivandrum. Protests staged by political parties and cultural procession by various organization are carried out occasionally in the city. But of late, Trivandrum city finds these public gathering, too difficult to handle. The shrinking spaces for public gathering are denying the rights of people to voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,4],"tags":[452],"class_list":["post-14532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-news","category-general","tag-trivandrum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entecity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}