The Faridpur Zilla Parishad authorities have planned to turn the government residence of the chief executive officer into a resthouse and take up a beautification project centered on the historic Suhrawardy Shorobor at the same premises.
Now kept under lock and key throughout the year, the two-storey building was constructed in 2009 at a cost of Tk37 lakh. Construction started in the 2006-07 financial year.
According to the Zilla Parishad (district council) office sources, it was built as the residence of the CEO on the east side of the pond in Tepakhola area of the city. Abdullah Al Mamun was the CEO of the council at that time.
Dhaka TribuneM/S RR Construction Limited implemented the construction project, financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and supervised by the council. After completion of the construction, the contractor handed over the building to the council when Yasmin Afsana was the CEO.
Assistant Engineer (acting) Md Fazal said he could not find the files related to the construction. As a result, information on the context in which the structure was built could not be ascertained.
The present CEO of the Zilla Parishad, Md Mujibur Rahman, said: “No chief executive officer has ever stayed in the building. Those who come to this district town from Dhaka have little opportunity to live here with our families.”
The atmosphere now
The Suhrawardy pond is surrounded by boundary walls in the west and south, Char Tepakhola Primary School and Char Tepakhola High School in the north, while the east side is unprotected. The entrance has a gate, but it remains open all the time.
The residents of Char Tepakhola village use a narrow walking path along the boundary as a shortcut to reach the main road. Children of schools run by the council gather at the vast playground located behind the building.
Due to the absence of monitoring and maintenance, the collapsible gate of the two-storey building has always remained closed.
The Thai glass windows around the building are broken; a window grill on the east side was cut and stolen. The interior wooden doors and windows are also broken. Moreover, all kinds of electronic items, including fans and lights, were stolen long ago.
Dhaka TribuneSince it is very easy to reach the building on the council premises, it has become an abode for drug addicts, who come here every evening.
According to residents of the area, strangers come to the building every day. They take drugs and engage in other anti-social activities, but the authorities look the other way.
Landless Salma Begum, 60, has been living in a small hut on the west side of the CEO's building for the last five years. She seeks alms and takes care of her brother, Azizul Sheikh, 55, who is bedridden due to a stroke.
Originating from Lakshmipur, the siblings were raised in Comilla. They later came to Faridpur after their father had left them. Salma never got married.
“In the last five years, I did not see a single officer of the Zilla Parishad coming around the building. If they guarded the building, it would not become a hangout for drug addicts…and the window glasses, doors, windows, and electronic items would not be stolen,” she said.
New plans
The council's CEO seemed ambitious while discussing his new plans for the residence and the pond.
“We're designing a project to revamp the Zilla Parishad premises. Once the project begins, we'll repair the disused building. It'll be used first as the project officer's residence and later as a rest house to make it profitable,” Mujibur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune.
He added that the government had faced a loss of around Tk5 crore for keeping the building abandoned for 14 years. “It'd have been more beneficial had the money been used in development works.”
The beautification plan is, however, nothing new.
The former LGRD minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, took up a similar project at an estimated budget of Tk250 crore to preserve the four-acre Suhrawardy Shorobor and the Tepakhola Lake that stretches around 50 acres. The project work stopped after Mosharraf ended his tenure as a minister.
