Juba League office grabs Siddheswari school playground

Local leaders of ruling Awami League's youth front Juba League have set up their party office on the Siddheswari school grounds in Siddheswari of Ramna thana in Dhaka. The school management committee itself also built the school wall, with space for the office.

Teachers of the Siddheswari higher secondary boys’ school along with local people said, ruling Awami League councillor of DSCC (Dhaka South City Corporation) ward 19, Munshi Quamruzzaman, who is also the president of the school management committee, backs the Juba League leaders.

Quamruzzaman said, “As an AL leader myself, I can’t remove the Juba League office. I have asked them several times to do so, but they have ignored this. So I had to accomodate the office when building the wall.”

The ward Juba League president Selimuzzaman Reza, however, denied the office belonged to the party, saying, “The general secretary of the committee, Maqsud, built the office and he sits there with his people from the party.”

Maqsud admitted that he was running an office privately there, but claimed that the former president of the school committee, Tapan Chowdhury, had given him the permission. He said, “We pay the school authorities Tk one thousand as rent per month.”

The acting principal of the school, Sheikh Fariduzzaman, said the ward councillor Quamruzzaman had a role in this, “The school authorities cannot lease out the land, nor did they do so. As head of the school management committee Quamruzzaman can say whether the party office should be there or not. He is responsible for the reforms and administration of the land.”

Earlier, Toma group, a construction company, kept their construction materials on the school grounds while constructing the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover and also built a two-storey accomodation for the workers in one corner.

The Dhaka WASA (Water Supply and Sewerage Authority) set up a water pump on one end of the field two years ago while another corner is already occupied by the Juba League.

With the flyover’s inauguration on 26 October, Toma group removed the construction materials from the field, but their two-storey building remains there and is used by the school authorities. 

Locals from Siddheswari Road claimed the Juba League office had become a drug den. They demanded the field be restored to its former position.

*This report has been rewritten in English by Nusrat Nowrin.