The murals, plaques and memorials built at Banani-Airport road’s Kurmitola to honour the nation’s seven Bir Shreshthas, who received the highest gallantry awards for their supreme sacrifices during the Great War of Liberation in 1971, have fallen into disrepair, thanks to negligence of the authorities concerned.

Seven pairs of round-shaped murals and plaques, one for depicting the portrait of the valiant heroes and another for describing their contributions, are set up on all Bir Shreshthas beside the road near Kurmitola General Hospital.

Vinyl World Group designed and financed the structures as a part of ‘Banani Overpass-Airport Intersection Beautification Project’ under the supervision of Roads and Highways Department.

These murals, plaques and memorials were constructed to recall the endless courage of the Bir Shreshthas, but the current ramshackle condition of these memorials hurt the freedom fighters.

Asked about the sorry state of the structures made to remember the seven great sons of the country, valiant freedom fighter Lt Cdr (Retd) Md Jalal Uddin Bir Uttam said, “Out of three million martyrs, only seven were awarded the highest gallantry award- Bir Shreshtha. This is a symbolic recognition of bravery so that the whole nation can pay tribute to all valiant freedom fighters through respecting them.”

“But the shabby condition of these memorials testifies that we are not only disrespecting the seven Bir Shreshthas but also other freedom fighters,” he added.

During a recent visit to the spot, this correspondent has found that grass has grown on most of the memorial plaques and covered a large portion of the portraits and biographies due to lack of maintenance for years.

The portraits of Bir Shreshtha Sepoy Mostafa Kamal and Sepoy Hamidur Rahman are covered with grass and their biographies were unclear.

Bir Shreshtha Lance Naik Munshi Abdur Rouf’s portrait was completely occupied by grass and his biography was so unclear that it was difficult to understand that whose portrait it is.

Grass didn’t cover the portraits and biographies of Bir Shreshtha Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman and Bir Shreshtha Lance Naik Noor Mohammad Sheikh but colour of those faded away.

Head and face of the portraits of Bir Shreshtha Engine Room Artificer Ruhul Amin and Captain Mohiuddin Jahangir were occupied by grass.

Urban planner and architect Iqbal Habib said, “We make impressive projects but fail to maintain those properly. This is an example how a good initiative ruins. Why the murals of seven Bir Shreshthas are left uncared? This is sheer negligence.”

“If the authorities cannot maintain such memorials, they had no need to build those. Once they have developed, they must maintain those properly. They have no right to disrespect our greatest heroes,” he added.

Vinyl World Group spent about Tk 90 crore to realise the beautification project in 2017 while another Tk 50 crore was allocated for the maintenance of the structures for 10 years.

Despite repeated attempts, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vinyl World Group Abaid Monsur couldn’t be reached for a comment on the issue.

When contacted, Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways Department AKM Manir Hossain Pathan said he has just taken the responsibility of the chief engineer and he doesn’t know about the current state of the murals, and plaques of Bir Shreshthas.

“I don’t know about the recent status of the murals and plaques. I can make a comment only after going through the matter,” he said.

Following his suggestion, this correspondent tried to contact Roads and Highways Department’s Additional Chief Engineer of Dhaka [Zone Office] Md Sabuj Uddin Khan over phone and sent text message but he didn’t reply.