Shyamoli Shishu Park, a state-run children park in the capital, continues to deplete day-by-day as authority concerned took no measures to upgrade or repair the recreational centre after its establishment.
Although the park is one of the few places in North Dhaka for children to spend some time in recreational activities, the venue has become an undesirable place for the city dwellers as it fails to meet the standards due to Dhaka North City Corporation’s negligence.
Residents of the area claimed that the city corporation had not upgraded the children’s park for a long time and the venue becomes a safe haven for drug addicts, sex workers, muggers and petty criminals after nightfall.
“The children are being deprived from using the park properly. Most of the slides and swings inside the park have broken down and locals refrain from entering the park due to irregularities and antisocial activities,” said Aminur Rahman, a resident of Ring Road.
He also blamed the city corporation for the bad shape of the park.
Aminur also said many would not choose to visit the park after sunset as they believe the park becomes an unsafe place as there are no lamp posts or lights.
“I knew little about the present atmosphere of the park, but never imagined that this sort of social activities talk place here,” he added.
Another resident, Habib said, “The environment of the park is very dirty and unhygienic. If this situation continues to be like this, I fear it will become like many other parks in the capital where people hardly visit,” he added.
During a recent visit to Shyamoli Shishu Park, this correspondent found only few broken remains of slides and swings for children. The northern part of the park seemed to be a dumping station while the rest of the park ground remains grassless with water-filled pot holes in many places.
Several children, who were seen playing football at the park, said they cannot play in the park during the monsoon as water logs most of its area.
Rimon, 11, said: “As there nothing for us in this park, therefore we can only play football or cricket here. We mostly visit the Shishu Mela in our area.”
Shishu Mela is a privately-owned amusement park in Shyamoli, where visitors need to buy tickets to enter.
“If it [Shyamoli Shishu Park] had few rides, we could enjoy it very much,” he added.
When contacted, DNCC Chief Executive Officer BM Enamul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune: “I am not aware of this matter.”
“I have directed the concerned officials; if the park has such problem we will take immediate step to overcome the problem,” he said.
The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has allocated Tk4 crore in this fiscal for development of all the of the corporation’s parks and playgrounds.
