Staff Reporter :
There are at least 16 playgrounds in the capital where children and teenagers are not allowed to enter for sports.
Though motor garage, shops and garbage disposals are found there, there is no opportunity for the sports.
Although there are strict laws to protect fields and water bodies in the country, these are not enforced. Experts say that most of the city’s playgrounds have gone into the stomach of the occupants.
At first glance it may seem like an abandoned vehicle garage. Some of the vehicles have been crushed due to abandonment year after year. This is the picture of Golartech field in Mirpur of the capital.
In Lalmatia Colony field, instead of vehicles, small food hotels and tea stalls have sprung up there. There are piles of garbage lying here and there. It is leaned that the field is also used for market in two or three days in a week.
One local resident said that the playground would be for children to play. But if the market sits here, where the children will go?
In the Khilgaon sand field of the capital, what’s absent here? from garbage, rickshaw garage, temporary toilet to cowshed.
One of the children said that the occupation is increasing here day by day. The game is not going on here. Due to a lot of stench, they can’t play. Simple confession of the occupiers, they have set up the playground due to lack of supervision by the authorities.
According to the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, at least 16 fields of two cities are occupied where there is no public access. Due to the lack of supervision of the authorities, the dilapidated condition of the fields, complained the experts.
Senior lawyer Manzil Morshed said that the canals, reservoirs and fields are being occupied in the city. Because those who are in charge of protecting them, do not execute that responsibility properly. Executive Director of the Institute for Planning and Development, Prof. Adil Muhammad Khan said that in many cases they occupy the field in the name of nominal lease, or in many cases in the name of maintenance. Later, they stopped the free movement of the locals. The High Court has ruled that the fields should be exposed. But the High Court verdict is not respected.
Meanwhile, two mayors claim that the work is underway to free the field.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said, “If there is allegation of occupying field in the city corporation, if I get the information, there will be nothing else on the playground.” I have already opened about 14 fields. I will also recover the left seven playground by July, he said.
Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation, said, “Where we can identify our own or government land, we are recovering it. The city authorities think that monitoring the fields under other agencies will be easier if they come under their supervision.
