IT is becoming hard to breathe in an open space under the open sky in the capital city. The city is crowded with a huge population and is under an enormous burden of providing space for recreation. The New Nation on Thursday reported that thousands of city dwellers, mostly women and children, swarm parks, zoo, botanical garden and museum on the Eid holidays, but the city had failed to provide the holiday makers with enough spaces for leisure-time recreation options. Many people expressed their dismay and frustration at the apathy of the authorities to build more recreation centres.
The Dhaka city has already been labeled as an ‘Unlivable City’ by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a UK based organization, for its unchecked civic menaces and is teeming with around one and a half crore citizens. The city is extremely populated as well as polluted excessively. It is clogged up with perpetual traffic, though it has less than 10 percent of the country’s road network but has to carry 50 percent of the total traffic.
The air quality here is deteriorating and the water level is depleting rapidly with a tremendous loss of water bodies. In line with these, open spaces are diminishing at an alarming rate. The powerful vested interests encroach the parks and playgrounds illegally while poor rootless people occupy many parks on a regular basis for making slums which lead to unhygienic living conditions. So, the environment of many parks is not good enough to be visited by the city dwellers.
Nonetheless, the urban-weary Dhaka denizens go to parks hoping to get relief from the nuisance of monotony, to touch the lush green in the parks, zoo or botanical gardens. They rush there to get rid of daily boredom especially on occasions like, Eids, Pohela Boishakh, Victory Day or Independence Day. Unfortunately, their hope, expectation and aspiration to give the kids a touch of greenery or a magic moment in the scenic beauty of nature have almost faded away.
The Dhaka City Corporation with its two limbs, one in the south and the other in the north, seems reluctant so far to maintain the parks and the open spaces. Even the Osmani Uddyan, just in front of the Nagar Bhaban, is fading due to the negligence of the city authorities. It seems that nobody is here to look after the city parks which are waiting to be grabbed by the local politically influential persons. Then why do the authorities impose ‘tax’ only to burden the citizenries of the capital Dhaka. The authorities should be ashamed of for not showing any ability to improve living condition in Dhaka. They know, they have no accountability. The government simply likes to have incompetent people around.
