At first glance the Tetultola playground may not seem like much — a small piece of land, devoid of greenery or any sort of facility. But to local people, especially the children, it has always been a place to escape from the daily grind of life. The place has welcomed all for the last 50 years. It is now surrounded by barbed wires. A new report in a national daily on Friday said that Dhaka deputy commissioner’s office handed over the playground’s land to Dhaka Metropolitan Police to set up an establishment for Kalabagan Police Station.
Amid the dearth of open spaces in the capital, this is yet another example of how the city dwellers are continuing to be deprived of playgrounds and parks. For several months, residents have been demonstrating with the demand to keep it as it is, for the sake of children. Over the years, Tetultola playground, which covers around one bigha of land, has been in use in multiple ways. It has acted as a playground, an Eidgah, and a place for namaz-e-janaza.
Reportedly, a former engineer of DIT used to own the land. After he left the country, it was recorded as abandoned property after the Liberation War. It then came under the housing and public works ministry. As the place was announced abandoned, different people and groups allegedly tried to grab the land using fake documents, but locals foiled each of their ploys.
According to Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, choosing a police station instead of a playground is the most “uncivilised” decision. By no standards of urban planning this can be justified. The plan must be scrapped, or law enforcers will come face to face with a generation that will never respect them. On the other hand, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon says the estimated population of the areas would be around 2.65 lakh in 2025, and they will require 13.9 and 11.7 acres of land for playgrounds and parks respectively. Besides, as per the playground, open spaces, parks and water bodies’ conservation act, no one can change its characteristics as it has been used as a playground for a long time. Changing will be “illegal”.
With approximately 18 million residents in Dhaka city, 48 per cent of them are children below 18. Unfortunately, for this huge number of children there are no parks to play within several blocks radius where they live. Moreover, most of the playgrounds don’t even have a touch of nature, let alone having proper arrangements for play.
