Lack of maintenance has caused Farmgate park in the capital to become a place where visitors no longer want to go to willingly.
Because of the apathy of the park authorities to ensure its cleanliness, part of it has almost become a landfill site where wastes are dumped regularly.
Known as Farmgate Anwar Park, this is also a place where drug peddlers and floating sex workers roam freely.
Officials of the Public Works Department, which is in charge of maintaining the park, said they would take steps for the park’s development but no such measure was taken in the last 12 months.
The southern part of the park, which is located in front of Tejgaon College, is where huge amounts of wastes are disposed of. Instead of visitors, floating people, including sex workers and their pimps, and vendors selling drugs mostly occupy the benches.
Even during the daytime, hoodlums dominate the park, causing city dwellers to avoid visiting it alone as they fear they might get into trouble. Also, security is lax at the park.
Several visitors from different areas of the capital told the Dhaka Tribune they are typically very disinclined to come to the park as they feel this is not a site where they can spend some time without any unwanted disturbance.
Moinul Hasan, a resident of Indira Road, said: “I generally come to the park in the morning to jog but the foul odour of wastes has always been a real turn-off. Also, the floating people disturb visitors who expect a peaceful environment here.”
The 67-year-old claimed that visitors had continually faced such problems but the park authorities had always turned a blind eye to these.
“I am very aware of the park’s atmosphere but there is no other open space near my house. This is why I am compelled to come here every day,” he added.
Afroza Hossain, a postgraduate student at Tejgaon College, said she has been studying at the institution for the last six years and has regularly observed the hassles that visitors face.
“Our campus is so congested, and my friends and I are thus forced to come to the park to hang out. We would not have come here if we had an alternative,” she said in an annoying tone.
Afroza said the park authorities should immediately take measures for improving the park’s environment as well as security.
“A host of visitors come to the park every day as it is situated at a key point in the capital.”
Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan, chief engineer at the Public Works Department, told the Dhaka Tribune that a set of steps were taken in the past to increase the park’s popularity.
“We will see what else we can do after identifying all the problems at the place. We have evicted the floating people several times but they keep coming back a few days after eviction drives are ended.
“We have also decided to increase the security of every park in the city that are maintained by our department,” he added.
