Once was a green patch

Another green patch that has been lost from Dhaka city's landscape was once called Sharafatganj Park. Again it is the city corporation that took over the land and started construction of a five-storey community centre.

In a few years, except some elderly people of the area, nobody would even know there used to be a park on Distrilary Road in Gendaria. There were children's rides, shade umbrellas, a gymnasium and also a two-storey community centre, almost all facilities for recreation and proper health and mental development of the local people.

A local ward councillor, during the mayoral period of Sadeque Hossain Khoka between 2002 and 2011, initiated the construction of the community centre with approval from the city corporation, said Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive officer of Dhaka South City Corporation.

The corporation, which is responsible for the maintenance of parks and open spaces in the city, indeed has destroyed many parks over the years turning the city into a concrete jungle, said an official of the corporation on the condition of anonymity.

Sohel Ahmed, a resident of nearby Murgitola, said, "We used to walk and jog at Sharafatganj Park. I played there in my childhood too. The city corporation is denying the residents such basic facilities."

Another local, Jotsna Akhtar, said, "We, the women of the area, strolled around the park after leaving our children there for playing. Elderly people also exercised there."

An official of DSCC said the construction work of the complex has been stopped for the last one and a half years as the contractors concerned are not getting payment due to a fund shortage.

The corporation started constructing the community centre complex on 4,447 sq ft of land, demolishing the old two-storey community centre in 2004. According to the plan, the community centre would house a library, a gymnasium and a ward councillor's office.

The residents said the new complex will offer all modern amenities but it has snatched one of the few open places where they could breathe fresh air.

The authorities should have utilised the park land properly, they added.

Md Belal Uddin, one resident, said, "A park is not only for playing and walking but also a place where different social and religious activities take place which strengthen relationship among the locals."

ss=MsoNormal>Farmer Wahed Ali of Kachir Char in Sadar upazila of Kurigram told the news agency that he has cultivated the grass in one-acre land this time and already sold the produced grass at Tk 55,000 so far after feeding 20 cows.