Two vanish from records

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 10th report of the series is published today.

Two open spaces in Mirpur, which had been identified as an "udyan" and a park in the map of the National Housing Authority (NHA), are now occupied by locally influential people.

A mosque and a tin-roof house have filled the space of the "udyan", while some 20 more such houses occupied the park. The two places, located 10 feet apart and wedged between road 5 and road 8 in Mirpur 13, cover more than one acre of land.

An official of NHA said the park and the "udyan" were still earmarked in the map of NHA, and they did not allot any part of it for anything, even for the mosque. 

The park had swings, slides and other amusement equipment while children played different games on the verdant "udyan".

Abdul Mannan, a businessman of the area, said the local people built Baitur Reza Jam-e-Mosque on the "udyan" in 2001, as three other mosques of the area were overflowing.

He said the authorities concerned allotted five kathas of land (0.10 acres) to the mosque and the rest had been kept for the children to play games, but the mosque was extended after 2009. 

Though the "udyan" and the park were on the list of undivided Dhaka City Corporation, after the split they vanished from the record of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

An official of DNCC said the "udyan" and the park were on NHA's document, but they did not get those officially from NHA.

"We will take an initiative to take the land officially and then will take steps to evict the occupiers from the park and the udyan," he said.

Mannan said children would play badminton, volleyball in the "udyan" around a decade ago.

There is another park in ward 1 (old) under DNCC where many children play now, he added. 

Abdul Hakim, imam of Baitur Reza Jam-e-Masjid, said the local lawmaker, councillor, and then DCC helped to build the mosque as per the local people's demand.

Photo: Rashed Shumon

Wishing anonymity, a resident of the area told The Daily Star that there was a playground in the neighbourhood but land grabbers occupied it and sold it as plots. The local people constructed the mosque on the "udyan" to save its land from grabbers, he added.

Initially, there had been some space to play even after construction of the mosque but later almost all of it was occupied by the mosque following the demand of devotees, he claimed.

Manzur Hossain Liton, another resident, said the children were being deprived of the opportunity to play outdoor games because of the occupation of the "udyan" and the park.

Mohammad Helal Uddin, the owner of the only tin-roof house on the "udyan" land, said they got the allotment from NHA -- NHA denied allotting land to anyone -- and had a stay order on eviction from the High Court.

Mohammad Foysal, a student of Hazi Ali Hossain High School, said they had to go to the playgrounds of two local schools, but the school authorities often kept those off-limits to other children.

Two fifth-graders of Heaven International School, Mohammad Ferdous and Fardin Khan, said they could not go to distant places to play games. It would have been nice, had they had the "udyan" now, they observed.

Mayor of DNCC Annisul Huq said he would first meet the councillors and later visit every ward to identify the problems. It will take one month, he added. "But the city parks will be a priority to me," Annisul said.