Taking stock of parks,playgrounds delayed further

The Public Works Department (PWD) has prepared an incomplete list of city parks and playgrounds under its jurisdiction as requested by an inter-ministerial committee.
The LGRD and cooperatives ministry at an inter-ministerial meeting on September 5 formed the 10-member inter-ministerial committee and gave a 15-day deadline to the agencies concerned to submit the lists to the committee.
But PWD and NHA, the two organs of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, missed two deadlines for submission of the lists.
Based on the lists submitted by different agencies, the committee is to prepare a detailed report delineating locations and latest state of the parks and playgrounds under different agencies within the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) area.
Abeda Akhtar, a deputy secretary at the works ministry, said that they have received the lists from PWD and NHA after a long delay.
“The PWD has submitted a compilation of particulars mainly of playgrounds located in various residential areas in the capital. It is not a comprehensive list of all such parks and playgrounds under PDW jurisdiction,” she said.
Abeda said they will send the lists to DCC as soon as possible.
Due to delay by the PWD and NHA, the committee submitted a partial compilation of lists provided by different agencies to the LGRD secretary on January 27.
“We delayed the submission twice and finally submitted the compilation of lists without any information from PWD and NHA,” said Sirajul Islam, chief town planner of DCC and member secretary of the inter-ministerial committee.
Leaders of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa), an environmentalist group, met the LGRD adviser on August 21 last year and recommended identification and demarcation of all the parks and playgrounds not only in the capital but also across the country for a coordinated maintenance and conservation with participation of the local community.
Sharif Jamil, member secretary of Bapa's parks and grounds programme committee. “We need the lists to know about the condition of all the parks and playgrounds in the city.”
The inter-ministerial committee wrote to all the agencies concerned including DCC, Rajuk, PWD, NHA, BTTB, Railway, BIWTA and Sports Ministry asking them to provide information on the parks and playgrounds under their ownership or maintenance.
According to the lists submitted to the committee, DCC has a total of 49 public parks, 10 playgrounds, six graveyards and two cremation grounds in its area.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) has 31 parks and playgrounds and three graveyards in Uttara, Gulshan, Banani, Nikunja, Mohakhali and Badda.
Bangladesh railway has three playgrounds and one graveyard, National Sports Council has seven playgrounds and Directorate of Sports has one playground in Mohammadpur.