SOS from Zinda Park

Khalilur Rahman | Published: February 02, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Civil society members have once again voiced concern over the existence of Zinda Park in Narayanganj. Last week noted Jurist Barrister Amirul Islam visited the park and was deeply impressed to see the wonderful work of the local people who voluntarily donated their pieces of lands to create this unique park which has hardly any parallel in the country.Â Barrister Islam was found speaking over TV channel eulogising the inhabitants of the locality who toiled over decades to create this park which attracts thousands of visitors from home and abroad. The Zinda Park now faces threat to its very existence because of the wrong decision taken by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) ignoring strong public protests and concern expressed by the Green activists.
The RAJUK appears to be indifferent to the demand by the Green activists who have been urging the city development authority not to take over the Zinda Park at Rupganj on the outskirts of Narayanganj city. The park, spread over an area of 150 acres of land, was set up 33 years ago by a group of enthusiastic youths of the area and since then they have been maintaining this vast green space on voluntary basis. About 4000 people have found means of earning their livelihood by working in the park. The park is also an important tourist attraction of the area visited regularly by hundreds of people from home and abroad.
The Zinda Park Rakkha (protection) Committee of Paribesh Bachao Andolan (POBA) had earlier formed a human chain in front of the Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University, urging the government to take steps against the RAJUK, the lone city development authority, nowÂ trying to hand over the management of Zinda Park to another privateÂ body. The protesters said if the management of the park is transferred to others, its maintenance would not be carried out efficiently. The natural beauty and ecological balance of the park would be destroyed.
In September 2010, a large number of people and leaders of POBA went on a 24-hour hunger strike in Narayanganj to save Zinda Park. According to a report, RAJUK plans to lease out Zinda Park. Agrapathik Palli Samiti that was formed in 1980 and began to develop the vast land donated by local people into a park. Zinda Park has as many as ten thousand different kinds of tress, three lakes and several rest houses.
RAJUK says that the park falls under the jurisdiction of its Purbachal Housing Project and that it can lease out the site to a third party. POBA chairman Abu Naser Khan says that Zinda Park is an example of people's voluntary participation in developing a vast green space and maintaining it successfully for more than three decades. He told the media that the RAJUK move has been directed towards satisfying the desire of some influential persons of the locality.
According to a report published in a national daily, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Narayanganj in a letter sent to RAJUK had also requested the city development authority not to take away the management of the Zinda Park from Agrapathik Palli Samiti. In his letter the DC observed that the Samiti has successfully run the park for more than thirty years and it is meaningless to take it away from them. An official of RAJUK said that the city development authority decided to hand over the park on lease to some organisations for turning it into a 'world class recreational park'. The struggle by the local people to save Zinda Park continues.
In the fast tempo of urbanisation and influx of people to the metropolis over the years, parks and open spaces have vanished one after another. The situation has come to such a pass that Dhaka city is now a jungle of concrete structures. Invariably local influential people are behind the occupation of playgrounds, parks and open spaces. In many places the parks and playgrounds are being used for parking trucks, buses, vans and rickshaws.
We strongly feel that RAJUK should discharge its duties as a protector of parks and open spaces and desist from taking any move that may jeopardise their existence like the one-Zinda Park.
(Email: khalilbdh@gmail.com)