Park or landfill?

Heaps of mud and garbage all around. The boundary walls in most places have collapsed. Stagnant dirty water can be seen here and there. Walkways too have become filthy and slippery. The Jatisangha Park at Panchlaish in Chittagong City now resembles a landfill.

A few benches are all that remains of the park now.

Once a rich greenery of trees, the park, established on an acre of land, has now turned into a disgusting place due to a lack of proper maintenance.

Apart from a few benches, it lacks amusement facilities for children. As a result, the number of visitors is also on the decline, said locals and visitors.

The park remains open for visitors from 3:00pm to 7:00pm every day, staff of the park said.

They said the Chittagong City Corporation authorities had been dumping mud and garbage in the park for the last two or three months to “level” the place with adjoining areas and also to stop inundation.

A large portion of the boundary wall had collapsed due to inundation in recent times, they claimed.

A staff of the park, seeking anonymity, said the number of visitors had significantly dropped. He, however, could not say how many visitors come to the place daily since there is no ticketing system and visitors can visit it free.

Hedayet Ullah, caretaker of the park, claimed that they have a good number of visitors on holidays.

Mohammad Alam, a resident of Katalganj, said there used to be a lot of visitors to the park before, but the number has declined sharply.

Some 30 visitors were seen at the park during a visit there on Saturday afternoon.

One visitor, Parvin Akter, said the park could be turned into an attractive place for city dwellers if the authorities paid attention to it.

“Except for a few benches, there is no playground equipment like swings or merry-go-rounds for children,” she said, adding that the walkways inside the park had also become muddy.

Contacted, Kazi Mohammad Shafiul Alam, chief executive officer of CCC, said they were filling up the place with mud as it is lower than the adjoining areas.

Boundary walls will also be built once the levelling is done, he added.

Construction of two swimming pools and a gymnasium on one side of the park is almost finished, he said, adding that the park would also be developed, but it would take some time.