Editorial
Playing around with South Parkland
Another high level intervention needed
Gulshan South Parkland was handed over to the DCC by Rajuk several months back for developing it into a green park area. However, subsequently it was made known by none other than the Dhaka mayor that a community centre was going to be built in the premises. He said that this was based also on an explicit interest shown by the local member of the Parliament and the area ward commissioner. In the meantime, following a litigation suit in public interest filed by the Gulshan Society in the High Court in December last, the court ordered that the DCC restrain itself from using the park space for any other purpose than maintaining and developing the same as a green park. Following the court order no less than the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister at a meeting on March 15 asked the DCC for the second time to either develop the land as a park or hand the same over to Rajuk. A similar opinion was also expressed by the secretary of public works. We find it rather strange that even after such clear instructions from the office of the Prime Minister and in spite of the High Court directive, let alone public interest in the matter, how work on green park development could be put on hold? We have seen in the past that orders issued from the PMO were not quite implemented. To say the least, this is bad for the entire administration and does contribute to the erosion of the system's credibility. As it is, there are but a few public parks worth their names. Grabbing of land including parts of city lakes and water bodies for commercial purposes by vested interest groups has run riot. This state of affairs simply cannot be allowed to continue. This is not only affecting the health of our citizens now, who have hardly places to go for some leisurely stroll or a walk, but is also bound to affect the future generations in many ways. It is time the PMO intervened effectively.
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