Children do not come out to play anymore and the elderly have given up on their morning walks at 0.33-acre Nayabazar Park in Old Dhaka’s English Road area. Once an “oasis” in the middle of the densely-populated concrete jungle, the park has turned into a garbage dump and parking lot for auto-rickshaws, human haulers and mini trucks these days. The civic authorities, however, have failed to reclaim the patch of green for the residents. The story is similar for most of the 47 parks under the jurisdiction of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
The corporation recovered the park from illegal occupation 15 years ago and set up various park equipment there. But the corporation took little care for the maintenance of the park. As a result, those equipment gradually disappeared.
Green activists complained that the civic authorities have shown “utter irresponsibility” in maintaining the parks in the capital.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA) secretary Mohammad Abdul Matin said, “Encroachers try to gobble up green spaces like the Nayabazar Park by taking advantage of the corporation’s apathy. If the authorities concerned cannot save the parks, the government should hand over the responsibility to somebody else.”
“Parks, open spaces and gardens act as the city’s lungs. When these green spaces are absent, the city starts dying. The authorities concerned should immediately free all parks and open spaces to save the city and to provide a place for children and others,” Matin said.
Even intervention from the highest quarters has failed to correct the situation. On March 15, 2011, the High Court had directed the Dhaka City Corporation to demarcate boundaries of all parks, gardens and playgrounds in Dhaka city and remove all illegal structures encroaching on the green spaces. On October 18, 2010, the Prime Minister had passed an order to build a playground at every ward and reclaim children’s parks from encroachers.
Sources in the civic body admitted that lack of supervision and maintenance were responsible for large scale encroachment of city parks.
DSCC authorities, however, maintained that they have started a drive to reclaim the parks. In the context of Nayabazar Park, DSCC’s deputy chief revenue officer market SMA Yousuf said, “We have appointed a private firm, Nodi Enterprise, for the beautification of Nayabazar Park. About 80 per cent of rubbish has been removed.”
“According to our contract with Nodi Enterprise, it was to complete the work within two months. But it has failed to stick to the deadline. We have issued a show cause notice to the firm in this regard,” Yousuf said, adding that the job would be hopefully completed in the next 10 days.
When asked why the corporation failed to keep an eye when rubbish was being dumped at Nayabazar Park, he passed the buck to other departments. “It’s not under my jurisdiction. I am only entrusted with monitoring
the beautification of parks,” he said.
Nodi Enterprise manager Bappi said, “We are running late because of a passenger shed built by Grameenphone, a private mobile company, and a transformer pole of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) at the park. We have written to authorities concerned to remove them.”
Bappi said Grameenphone has agreed to remove the shed soon, but DESCO has not responded properly “due to a bureaucratic tangle”.
He also denied any kind of deadline set by DSCC. “We have told the corporation that we would take our own time to complete the job,” he claimed.
Abdullah Al Mamun, proprietor of Nodi Enterprise told The Independent that he sent a letter to DSCC deputy chief revenue officer on March 14 saying to remove the passenger shed and the electric transformer but he did not get any response so far.
“We are failing to remove the garbage due to such situation,” he added. The company plans to build a fountain in the middle and a brick wall around the park to protect it from further encroachment.
Asked about the cost of restoration of the park, he said, “We are are doing the work ourselves and it would cost about Tk. 90 lakh to one crore.”
But what was the company’s interest in spending such a large amount of money? Bappi explained: “We are doing it for beautification of the park and we would continue to do so for five years.” He added that Nodi Enterprise would cover up the cost by asking other companies like Grameenphone to sponsor them.
He also denied that advertisement by private companies at the park would not hamper their job. “According to our design, advertisements would not mar the park’s beauty.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a mini-truck driver said, “I and others park our vehicles here every day because there is a lot of open space. It becomes easier for us to load and unload goods for the nearby shops.”
But he admitted that parks should be free of encroachments so that people, especially children, can spend a leisurely time amid the din and bustle of city life.
Many parks and playgrounds in the capital are the prime targets of land grabbers. Sometimes, local residents degrade a park by using it as their dumping ground as well as a parking lot. On the other hand, homeless people often occupy parks and make them very unhygienic.
-With The Independent input
