Save Tentultala playground

We all know how important playing outdoors is for children. It improves their learning, as well as social and physical development. It also encourages development of coping skills.

However, we have only a few open places in Dhaka city for our children. Tentultala playground at Kalabagan Lake Circus Road is one such place. For more than 50 years, the field, which is on about a bigha of land, has been used as a playground, an Eidgah, and a place for namaz-e-janazas.

Recently, police installed barbed-wire fences around Tentultala for the construction of a police station, ignoring repeated calls from neighbourhood against the decision. Not only that they detained Syeda Ratna, a community leader trying to save Tentultala playground, and her 17-year-old son. The woman and her son were reportedly allowed to go after she "had signed a bond". Can anyone tell us where children of the area will play if this playground is used to build a police station? The boy, who did not commit any crime, was kept in a police lockup. Is this legal?

There are almost no dedicated playgrounds for children in the city to play in, and its consequence can be devastating for their health. As such, it is extremely unfortunate that the authorities concerned are taking away one of the last remaining playgrounds of the capital. We urge them to move away from the construction work on Tentultala playground, and keep it as it has been for long.

Ahmed Kibria,

Dhanmomdi, Dhaka,

kibriabsd@gmail.com