Dhaka North City Corporation and the National Housing Authority are at loggerheads over a vacant piece of land on Paris Road in the capital's Mirpur. City officials claim the site is a playground, while the housing authority says 32 plots were developed and allotted there in 1996.

The housing authority and a person who claimed to be an owner of one of the plots have filed complaints with Mirpur police over the matter. Seven other “owners” also sent a legal notice to Mayor Atiqul Islam and Ward No. 3 Councillor Zahirul Islam.

DNCC Assistant Urban Planner Farzana Bobby lodged a complaint at Pallabi Police Station requesting legal action against “those who want to use the site as a plot or are trying to take possession of it”.

Atiqul said the legal notice had not reached him. The 127.27 decimal piece of land was shown as an open space in the Detailed Area Plan or DAP, according to him.

According to NHA, these plots, each with an area of 2.89 decimals, were allotted to 32 people in 1996. The owners could not take control of the land for a long time because a slum was established there.

On Sept 18, the locals and slum dwellers thwarted the owners when they went there to take control of that land.

On Sept 29, locals, including students of several schools, colleges and madrasas, went on a hunger strike demanding the restoration of the place as a playground.

Mayor Atiqul appeared there, spoke to the hunger strikers and supported their demands. He announced that day that the land would be recovered.

Then on Oct 3, the place was filled with sand and soil. A signboard was hung there. It read 'Sheikh Fazlul Haq Mani Playground'. It contained the names of Atiqul, local MP Ilyas Uddin Mollah and Councillor Zahirul.

Kawser Morshed, NHA executive engineer of Mirpur Housing Division-2, handed a letter to the deputy commissioner of police of that area, requesting legal action against those who filled the land.

Supreme Court lawyer Md Ismail Khan, representing seven “owners”, in a legal notice the same day asked the city corporation to refrain from “forcibly constructing a playground by filling the land up”.

Earlier, on Oct 2, Salwa Zaman, sub-divisional engineer of the NHA, filed a complaint with Pallabi police.

A plot “owner” named Fatema Begum filed another police complaint the same day alleging that on Sept 18, the allottees had been threatened by some locals when they went to the plot to start the construction work.

On Thursday, the city corporation filed a police complaint, stating that the DAP shows the playground adjacent to Paris Road in Ward No. 3 as an open space. The place was also shown as an open space in the 1987 layout of Mirpur Section-11.

It requested legal action against “those involved in encroachment on the land” to protect government property.

“I have no personal issues involved here. There is no field in Dhaka, there is no place to breathe. Where will people go? If there is a playground or park, people will have some space for entertainment,” said Mayor Atiqul.