Public park a far cry

BDR is running a fair price shop on the western part of the Eidgah Maidan. PHOTO: STAR

"We have sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Works. We will not get the fund this financial year as this is the end of the year. The design of the park is done we are now waiting for the allocation," said a high official PWD.

At present the land is occupied by a fair price shop of BDR, water pump house of Wasa, some small shops and a cleaners' shed of Dhaka City Corporation on the adjacent footpath.

The historic Eidgah, a demarcated area for Eid congregation built during the Mughal period in 1640.

The civil engineering and arboriculture wings of PWD are concerned departments to convert the area into a park. Finding the public land unattended for years the Eidgah mosque committee tried to encroach the land and build a madrasa on it.

In the plan Tk 13 lakh was allocated for fencing the park. The project was submitted to the chief engineer's office on February 14. The department of arboriculture, planning the landscaping of the park had also sent their plan and design of the project estimating Tk 5 lakh.

On June 11 last year the Ministry of Housing and Public Works approved the plan.

According to the plan there will be a grill-fenced boundary and the arboriculture wing would plant trees along the Sat Masjid Road.

The local ward commissioner and the Eidgah mosque committee have attempted to grab the around one bigha land situated between Sat Masjid Road and the Eidgah. On January 23, the committee with the help of the ward commissioner chopped down several trees on the site.

The mosque committee claimed that the whole area inside the boundary of the Eidgah Maidan including the piece of vacant land situated between Sta Masjid Road and the western boundary of the Eidgah is a Waqf estate.

PWD officials claimed that the Eidgah belongs to the Department of Archaeology and the mosque is a Waqf estate but the remainder of the land, an area of 2.5 acres belongs to PWD. The mosque authority has been using parts of their land upon receiving the permission from PWD.

Residents of the area want the place to be converted into a park but fears that if the process is delayed the powerful mosque committee backed by local ward commissioner Abul Khaer Bablu who is now in prison.