Cultural personalities staged a demonstration in front the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban yesterday, protesting the authorities’ plan to erect an eight-foot high iron fence around the plaza and the lawns in the east and west, removing the original lower fence.
The Public Works Department is implementing the project in which 8.5-foot high iron fences would be set up on three sides of the complex – South Plaza and the lawns in the east and west – replacing an existing four-foot high barrier.
The demonstrators compared the fencing to a cage around the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban and claimed that it would highly deter the original design by world famous architect Louis I Kahn who designed the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on 200 acres of land. The complex at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar was inaugurated in 1982.
Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban was one of the world’s best works of all times in terms of greatness in the use of space and light and so it should be open to public, said the artists who gathered there upon communicating through social media.
The government’s move to install the fence at a cost of Tk9.5 crore would restrict general people’s entrance to the vastness of the space, they said.
Although security had been shown as an excuse for building the fence, it could not guarantee protection against potential threats or any sabotage attempt, said the demonstrators.
They also said the idea was poor as fence could not be substitute to well-trained security officials or other high-tech security systems.
Currently the work for building fence is on halt as the Sangsad Bhaban authorities are waiting to get hold off the copy of the original plan of the building from Luis I Kahn’s son that would cost Tk85 lakh, said Sangsad Bhaban officials.
Two weeks earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hold a meeting with officials of the Public Works Department, the Department of Architecture and security wing of the parliament to enquire over the proceeding of the construction of the fence.