A repented BNWA starts fair anyway
City Correspondent
Amidst protest by local residents and environmentalists, Bangladesh National Weavers Association (BNWA) yesterday started its month long fair at the T&T playground in Sher-e-Banglanagar, depriving thousands of local children from sporting activities.Dewan Mohammad Ismail, President, BNWA, an unregistered organisation, however said that they have obtained all necessary permission from the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to occupy the playground for a month. "PWD regularly rents out the playground. We just rented it for a month", said Ismail. "We understand how important it is for the kids to play but we have spent so much for the arrangement and therefore we just want to finish the fair and go home," he said. "We have spent Tk 1.5 lakh as rent and Tk 22,500 as vat to PWD. To set up 26 stalls we had to spend more. Throughout the fair we just want to retrieve the investment and wind up the fair," he added. Ferdous Ahmed Quarishi, Editor, Dainik Desh Banlga inaugurated the fair. While contacted Quarishi told Star City that he had no idea about the recent developments. "We do have a very limited numbers of playground in Dhaka city but we have to consider the poor condition of the weavers as well. They don't have a permanent place to sell their products", said Quarishi. "Playground should be used for playing. Authorities should consider about sporting issues first and then decide about renting playgrounds," he added. Local people yesterday expressed their anger over the allocation of the playground. They said the authorities keep renting the playground on a regular basis for making some quick money at the expense of the public health and sporting activities of the local youths. "This culture of occupying playground for months on commercial purposes, depriving the youths is not new, we have seen how city corporation behaved over the last few years with playgrounds in Dhanmondi and other places in the city," said a resident of Nakhalpara. The BNWA faced a stiff résistance on July 1 when officials went to take over the playground. On the day local youths who had set up an artificial turf to play cricket on the playground refused to budge when BNWA officials asked them to go away. The Tejgaon police came to the rescue of the BNWA and arrested a young cricketer for demanding his right to play. The young cricketer had to give an undertaking to the police promising that he would not return to the playground until the fair was over. The police released him after the written undertaking by the young man.
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