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Dhanmondi playground half open DSCC looks to PMO for directives

Tawfique Ali
The Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club authorities have closed the main gate of the Dhanmondi playground on Road-8 on Wednesday but children have access to the ground through a side gate.
However, architect Iqbal Habib, one of the leading persons campaigning for freeing the public playground from the club's occupation, said, "It [locking the main gate| is a ploy to take exclusive possession of the public playground..."
Interestingly, the club's convener Sheikh Iqbal Khokon said they had locked the main gate to stop “young boys from entering with their girlfriends, access of vagabonds, prostitutes and motor vehicles".
The side gate is closed during the nights, he said. All main entrances to Ramna Park too remain locked with a smaller gate open, Khokon added.
The Dhaka South City Corporation opened the playground to public on April 24 following a High Court order.
Its Administrator Md Alamgir told The Daily Star that the club authorities locked the gate and that they are waiting to
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hear what the Prime Minister's Office has to say about this since the club is named after Sheikh Jamal, the son of the Father of the Nation.
"We have to take into consideration the political sensitivity involved, High Court orders and position of the local government ministry," he said, adding that he would talk to the law officer of the DSCC about the matter.
DSCC law officer Mofizul Islam, however, said closing the main gate was an illegal action as it was a public space.
Md Alamgir said, "We have to respect both the environmental campaigners' demand for freeing the playground and occupation of the club run by influential people.”
The DSCC authorities on April 24 had opened the playground for all but left intact the structures of the elitist club occupying the play-
ground.
The DSCC demolished a workers' shed of the club on May 18 but again spared three large semi-concrete structures housing the club just so that it could say that it complied with a 2011 High Court order that directed freeing the playground of illegal structures except those meant for sports.
Local Government Engineering Department, however, was working in full swing to build two tennis courts, two badminton courts and a basketball court at the playground for the club with Tk 1.63 crore public money.
On a visit to the playground yesterday afternoon, scores of children and youths were seen playing in the playground. A nine-grader Tasrif Ahnab from Kalabagan, said, "Club officials allowed us to play even though they locked the main gate."