State of most of the public parks is deplorable today with a good many are used commercially.

Gulshan South Park and Gulshan Central Park (Wonderland) that have long been under illegal occupancy are yet to be developed as full-fledged public parks.

Noted educationist and environmental activist Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury said that open parks have immense social and health significance. One of the objectives of his campaign for conservation of city parks is to highlight their social utility.

"A city must have some designated breathing spaces and sources of natural beauty," he said. "So authorities must reclaim the public parks from illegal possession."

Sharif Jamil, member secretary, parks and grounds programme committee of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, said that general picture of the city parks is that they are encroached in many ways. Dhaka Wasa set up water pumps inside many of them.

Other forms of encroachment include occupying parklands by local ward commissioner of DCC either for commercial purposes or for setting up the commissioners' office. Parts of public parks are also occupied for constructing public toilets.

Swamibagh Park is now a truck stand while Karwan Bazar children's park has turned into a kitchen market. Kalyanpur children's park is occupied by floating stalls and public toilets. Another park at English Road has too turned into a truck stand.

DCC does not maintain some public parks that include Sirajuddowla Park in the old town. A bus stand occupies its front while anti-social elements reign inside.

Shikkatuli Park is another example, half of which is encroached.

In many cases, ward commissioners occupy public parks in the name of maintenance.

"There should be a designated authority to look after city parks and play grounds," Jamil said.

According to a recent survey, DCC has 43 out of 47 public parks under its maintenance.

During the survey aimed to ascertain the latest status of the public parks and to improve their condition, it was found that three to four parks were not on the DCC list.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) handed over 42 public parks in the city to DCC for maintenance by an order in 1982, said the then Rajuk chairman Md Shahid Alam.

Immediate past general secretary of Gulshan Society and a former Rajuk chairman Md Anwarul Alam said that both Gulshan Central Park (Wonderland) and Gulshan South Park were clearly earmarked as open children's park in the layout of Gulshan model town in the master plan prepared in 1962 by Dhaka Improvement Trust.

Though the Rajuk gave the two pieces of land -- one in front of shooting club and another near Azad Mosque -- to DCC to maintain them as parks, but the city corporation mishandled both the parks.

The DCC leased out a big chunk of Gulshan Central Park to Wonderland in 1990, a private sector children's amusement park, for commercial use. Besides, it allowed settlement of a sweeper colony occupying the South Park.

"DCC should have no way leased out the parklands for such use," Anwarul Alam said. "It had no authority to do that, as it was entrusted to maintain the space as public parks."

Though the Gulshan South Park was freed from a 25-year illegal occupancy by settlement of 416 sweeper families of DCC in the first week of October 2005, DCC remained dubious on developing a green park at the site.

A section of officials at the DCC are pursuing a hidden plan to implement a commercial construction project at the site.

A meeting of the Good Governance Committee of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on July 11, 2003 instructed DCC to return both the parklands to Rajuk within a month.

But DCC authorities' stand had always been dubious in developing a green park at the site of Gulshan South Park with greedy quarters' clandestine attempts to grab the land.

Despite repeated directions from the PMO, campaign of the civil society and media outcry, the DCC deliberately dilly-dallied in developing the park.

Though the Rajuk handed over 3.99 acres of Gulshan land to DCC, the city corporation encroached the Gulshan lake to occupy 6.33 acres.

The DCC, contrary to the concept of a public park, obstinately built a six-foot high solid wall around the parkland instead of a see-through one.

In the face of tremendous public pressure, the DCC developed a walkway and set up a number of benches without even levelling the ground.

"Our plan is to build a community centre on the open space alongside a park," city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka told Star City in December 2005.

Following a writ petition filed by a Gulshan resident MA Reza in 1995, a division bench of the High Court on May 24, 2007 ordered the authorities of Wonderland to remove all the establishments of the amusement park within six months.

Regarding Gulshan South Park, Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury, who is chairman of DCC's park development and beautification committee, said the development plan for the second phase was not consistent with the concept of an open public park.

The committee rejected a Tk 77 lakh second phase development scheme for Gulshan South Park, on the ground that the design was not in keeping with the concept of an aesthetic and open public park, said an official of DCC.

The DCC is now reviewing the plan.

Dr Akbar Ali Khan, current president of Gulshan Society and a former adviser to caretaker government, wants immediate reclamation and development of the parks.

Regarding Wonderland, Mayor Khoka told this correspondent in February this year that his predecessor had leased out the public park for commercial use and he (Khoka) refused renewal the lease contract.

"There were many gross anomalies in the process of leasing out the park for commercial use," Khoka said. "Another portion of the same park occupied by a nursery was reclaimed during my tenure."

On June 2, Khoka said, "Public parks in many cases are of no use."

Responding to some other parks, Khoka said the idea of setting up a children's park at Karwan Bazar was wrong because there are markets and other commercial establishments in and around the area.