UN Park in Chittagong

The Chittagong City Corporation's (CCC) move to lease out the Jatisangha Park or UN Park to a private company is a rank bad idea. The open space for the general people at the heart of the port city has already been shrunk as a gymnasium and a swimming pool have been built inside the park. What used to be a lush, green space with a water body, walkways and benches is now a skeleton of its previous self, all due to years of neglect and disuse by the CCC. 

As it is, there is a dearth of breathing space in Chittagong, where for its six million inhabitants there are only six parks, of which only three are open to all. To make it worse, some of them have become a melting pot for unsocial elements. Women, children and the elderly, who need such facilities the most, steer clear of the parks as they are frequented by disreputable characters.  

It is shocking that instead of building new recreational facilities for the citizens of the burgeoning metropolis, the CCC, the custodian of the city's civic amenities, wishes to stifle the few breathing spaces that the city is left with. The presence of green space is crucial for the environmental balance in a city. More important perhaps is its role in the upbringing of children, whose physical, cognitive and emotional strengths are proportional to the establishment of a creative, social environment. We urge the CCC to give up the idea of leasing out the Jatisangha Park, refurbish it and return the facility to whom it belongs--the ordinary people of Chittagong.