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‘No park to play in’: 10-year-old writes to CM Yogi. Now, his town is set to get sports centre

Mohammad Aidan, a Class 5 student from Moradabad's Bilari, wrote to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister saying children in his town had no park to play in. Weeks later, officials informed his family that a multipurpose sports centre had been approved.

Md Aidan (left) and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (right). (Express Photos)

3 min readLucknowJul 29, 2026 05:33 PM IST First published on: Jul 29, 2026 at 06:26 AM IST

In May, Mohammad Aidan, a Class 5 student, shot off a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, lamenting the fact that his hometown of Bilari in Moradabad district had no children’s park and there was no place he could play or spend time during his summer vacations.

Weeks later, to everyone’s surprise, Aidan, 10, got a call from officials of the district administration informing him that a proposal for a multipurpose sports facility centre was approved for the town and that work on the project will start soon.

Bilari, which has a population of around 60,000, is nearly 30 kilometres from the Moradabad district headquarters.

In his letter, the boy said that in the absence of a park, he was unable to play and was forced to spend all his time at home. He requested that authorities should arrange for a park in his neighbourhood.

In the letter, the child requested that authorities should arrange for a park in his neighbourhood.

What followed was an exchange of correspondence between the state government and the Moradabad district magistrate, who in turn sought information from the Bilari Nagar Palika, the local municipal body.

In the meantime, a suitable parcel of land for the construction of the sports centre was identified, and the proposal was submitted to the government.

Rajani Singh, Executive Officer of Bilari Nagar Palika, said a proposal for the multipurpose sports facility centre, to be built on the playground of the Junior High School in Bilari, was sent to the government recently and was approved under the Chief Minister’s Vaishvik Nagarodaya Yojana.

Residents had long been demanding a children’s park in the town, she said, adding the process of allocating funds for the project is currently underway and work on the sports centre will begin at the approved site once the sanctioned funds are released to the municipality.

When contacted, Aidan’s father, advocate Zishan Pasha (38), recalled how it began by chance. “In May, once the summer vacations were announced, Aidan had been pestering me to let him cycle on the road and take him to a park where he could play on a swing. Since there was no playground in our town, I found myself unable to do anything about it — I simply had to tell him I was helpless,” Pasha said.

“One day, he asked me if he should write to the Chief Minister, asking him to arrange a park for them. I told him to go ahead and write the letter, and that I would send it on his behalf. The next day, he wrote the letter and handed it to me. Honestly, I didn’t take it very seriously at the time, and I simply kept the letter aside. Two days later, he asked me whether I had sent it — so, more out of obligation than hope, I sent it by speed post,” he recounted.

“Yesterday, the district administration informed me that, based on my son’s application, a sports centre has been approved for our town, and construction will begin soon. Now, everyone in the village is coming to congratulate my son for making it happen,” Pasha added.