T & T Playground
'Stop commercial activities on our playgrounds'
Shahnaz Parveen
A team of People's Commission formed by the Save Environment Movement yesterday visited the T & T playground in Sher-e-Banglanagar where Bangladesh National Weavers Association (BNWA) is holding a month long fair, depriving thousands of local children from sporting activities."Dhaka city is gradually losing all its playgrounds and open spaces. The purpose of the visit is to protest the destruction of our playgrounds", said Naser Khan, Convenor, Save Environment Movement. "We have an ongoing project to inspect the playgrounds of the city mainly to find out about their general condition and what the locals have to say about it. We chose T & T playground because of the latest incident", he added. "After the inspection is completed we will submit reports to the concerned ministry with a plan to protect them in the long run", said Khan. Headed by Justice Golam Rabbani the people's commission comprised lawyers, engineers, journalists and members of the civil society. While on the inspection Rafiqul Islam Babu, Joint Secretary, Bangladesh Cricket Board said, "We have very little space available for sports in Dhaka city. Most of these spaces are regularly being used for holding various commercial activities" "Due to lack of sports facilities our youths are more inclined towards unsocial activities such as drugs. In a way we are encouraging such acts by devouring playgrounds", he added. "There should be separate space for fairs and other commercial activities. We demand that playground should be used for sports activities only", he said. Among others Mashur Rahman Tutul, Member Secretary, Bangladesh Cricket Board, Architect Mustasin Khan, Advocate Nusrat Jahan were present during the inspection. In a latest incident the Tejgaon police on July 1 arrested a young cricketer named Abdul Majid when he and his friends protested the move to set up the fair. "I have been playing cricket in the T & T playground since I was a young boy. All the young boys in my neighbourhood love the playground. But recently there has been one fair after another", said Abdul Majid who happened to be the Assistant Manager of Indoor and Gym Facilities, Bangladesh Cricket Board. Majid was released only after he signed a bond promising not to go near the fair during the period of the fair. Another fair organised by the Bangladesh Taant Board just ended on May 30. Before that Jatiyatabadi Taanit Dal used to organise Bejoy Mela every year. Public Works Department (PWD) regularly leases the playground for holding fairs throughout the year. Locals say that they don't understand why the authority is eyeing the only playground in their locality.
| 
