We have to call the police sometimes, when people don’t follow the instructions, guard said.
The visitors at Cubbon Park feels embarrassed with loud megaphone announcements. A couple Ayushi and Arijit at Cubbon Park said, “Public display of affection is not banned by law and it should be okay to hold hands. But yes, people should be aware about their limits. They can’t just forget that they are in public. I believe instead of megaphones, the security guard should go and personally warn the couples. It is embarrassing to hear these announcements.”
The security guards in Cubbon Park are using mega phones to stop the inappropriate behaviour of public displays of affection in the park.
Manjunath, a security guard at Cubbon Ppark said, “We make announcement to make people aware about their behavior and to ask them to stop hugging and kissing in the public because there are families with children and senior citizens in the park.”
Manjunath added, “I have been using the megaphone from past eight days and we have stopped many people from displaying affection openly. Sometimes we also have to call police when people don’t listen to the warnings.”
However, the couples in Cubbon Park feel differently about the megaphone decision by horticulture department. Another couple at Cubbon Park said, “The department is fine with elder people’s inappropriate behaviour but when it’s about the younger generation, they have an issue with it. Also, they shouldn’t use megaphones.”
Earlier, the guards in Cubbon Park used to whistle in the park to warn people and ask them not to sit on the grass to come and sit on the benches but now the department of horticulture has given them megaphones so that they can make announcement from a distance.
Even though many people in Cubbon Park felt that using megaphones is not right a women with two children said, “Today, only one of my child came to me and told me about a couple kissing. I completely respect people privacy but they need to draw a line in between and our culture does not support this. They shouldn’t take advantage of this. Every couple needs a place to talk and sit together but they need to understand that it is a park and people come here with families.”
Balakrishna H.T., Deputy Director of Horticulture department at Cubbon Park said, “These are general announcements that we have asked the guards to make and these announcements are for the do’s and don’t’s liketo stop people from playing cricket or littering in the park. There are snakes in some areas so we need to make people aware about the snakes. Now that vacation has started, the numbers of people who visit Cubbon Park have increase and Megaphones makes it easier to pass the information.”
He added, “This step was taken because many people complained about the inappropriate behave but their is no punishment for this. We just warn the people about their actions”
