Preserving Liberation War SitesL: Project hamstrung by land issues

Three years ago, the government undertook a project to preserve the sites bearing historic value of the Liberation War for future generations to learn about the country's tumultuous birth.

The Liberation War ministry chose 360 sites -- including killing fields of the Pakistani army, meeting places of freedom fighters and combat zones -- in 293 upazilas to construct 284 memorials and 76 museums at a cost of Tk 179 crore.

The first deadline for the project was in June this year, but the ministry has been able to finish less than a third of the work by the time, mainly because of complications over land. The project was extended by two more years and, consequently, the cost too went up to Tk 206 crore, according to project officials.

As of November this year, physical work at only 104 sites -- 99 memorials and 5 museums -- have been completed, say project officials.

"During project designing, there was an estimate of the amount of land that would be needed. But when project officials went to the sites, they were confused as to whether these were khas lands or private property," said Tapan Kanti Ghosh, secretary of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry.

"The project officials needed administrative approval to acquire the lands, which was time consuming. Besides, the coronavirus pandemic hampered the work for several months," he told The Daily Star.

Tapan, however, said the work is now progressing fast and hoped that it would be completed within the new deadline.

Project Director Abdul Hakim said, "Usually we build memorials on khas land, but we had to buy land for four sites of this project. If we were to buy lands for all sites, the project cost would have increased manifold."

He said the total project cost would be more than the original estimate because of the rising costs of many things.

Project officials said construction work at 124 sites are progressing, estimates for 60 other sites are under process and 45 are still at the designing stage. Tendering is going on for four sites.

Besides, 23 sites have land-related problems, they said.

Usually, eight decimals of land are required to build a museum while around five decimals are needed to construct a memorial.

THE PROJECT

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project in October 2017.

The government is constructing memorials in combinations of red and green. The main deck will be red and the free spaces will be filled with green grass. There will be a small place where two rides will be installed for children.

The main deck will also be used as a podium for staging programmes. There will be separate places for placing floral wreaths, according to the project officials.

Memorabilia related to the Liberation War will be exhibited at the museums and there will be a library at each museum, featuring books on the Liberation War.

Each site will contain its short history, said Rejwonul Haque, a project official.

Liberation War researcher Prof Muntassir Mamoon said many historical places linked with the liberation war are gradually disappearing due to a lack of preservation and maintenance.

"Proper preservations do not take place due to the lack commitment of political leadership and bureaucrats," he said.

He proposed that upazila chairmen and upazila nirbahi officers should be given the responsibility to identify war-related sites and the maintenance of recognised sites.