Only whispers of past remain
How many parks does Dhaka city need? According to rules, it should be 92, one for each ward. But we have only 54, with several of them having ceased to exist and many threatened. At least 10 parks have been replaced with a community centre, kitchen market, mosque, rickshaw garage or truck parking lot, mostly by the city corporation itself. This is the picture when an urban expert, Prof Nazrul Islam, says every 10,000 city residents need an open space of four acres -- park or playground -- for healthy development of children and prevention of diseases related to physical activities. The Daily Star reports how and why we are squeezing our breathing spaces in our metropolis where 15 million people cram in. The ninth report of the series is published today.
At the main entrance, a plaque reading "Shishu Park" or children's park will puzzle a stranger if she steps into that small strip of land. Instead of seeing children's rides, she will come across a few worn-out slides and iron poles without any swing attached to them; instead of finding a gaggle of kids, she will meet rickshaw-pullers chatting with each other or sharing a cigarette.
This scenario did not exist 15 years ago. It was truly a children's place back then.
Established in 1984 beside Girza Urdu Road, Bakshibazar Park faced the first onslaught in 2001-2002 when the Dhaka city corporation gave a portion of its land for construction of a three-storey clinic under the urban healthcare project.
Gradually the open space fell to disuse for children.
Children have not been playing there for the last 10 years, said Ramu Das, a cleaner of nearby Alia Madrasa. The park is ruined, he added.
The parkland has completely slid out of the general people's hands to the locally influential people, who are now making money by letting the open space to be used as a parking lot for rickshaws and rickshaw-vans.
A rickshaw-van puller said that to avail the parking facility, each of them gave Tk 350 monthly to some locally influential people from the ruling party. Without naming anyone, he said a man collected the fee on behalf of them.
Stressing the necessity of a park in every ward, a resident of the area who used to play in the park around 15 years ago said the authorities should take an initiative to recover the park from grabbers and ensure its use for which it is meant.
Khalid Ahmed, chief estate officer of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), said they already visited the spot and would go for a drive shortly to clear the place.
DSCC mayor-elect Sayeed Khokon said he would take necessary measures after observing the conditions of the city parks.
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