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Move to recover private land from 'grabbers'
FE Report
2/16/2005
A high-level bureaucratic committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Dr. Saadat Hussain has reviewed the land related issues recently. The committee proposed introduction of 14-year imprisonment for land grabbing. This proposal is seen by all concerned as a time-needed measure. The secretary-level committee on resisting private land grabbing recommended strict punishment to solve the problem of unauthorised land grabbing.
It was further decided in the meeting that a five-member committee, headed by a joint secretary of the cabinet division, will be formed to review the existing laws, bring necessary changes so that the new measure could be implemented in full force and have the land-related cases settled promptly. The committee that has been formed in February 2005 is reported to have already recovered about 265 acres of land in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj districts.
The committee felt that the government has responsibility of freeing private land from the unauthorised occupations of the organised gangs and land developers. The committee however, failed to identify the total area of public and private land now under the occupation of land grabbers. The identification of grabbed public land in all the districts of the country has not yet been completed.
According to the parliamentary standing committee on land, more than 1100 acres of land are now under the unauthorised occupation of real estates and land developers in the capital and in some parts of Narayanganj and Gazipur.
There are over four million acres of khas land and 500,000 acres of vested and abandoned property across the country except the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Besides, nearly 29,000 acres of land under Roads and Highways, Railways, Shipping Ministry and other government bodies are now under illegal occupation.
The move taken by top notch people in the government will lift up the hope of the common people if it is strictly maintained. The pledge of the committee to spare none, be it government officials or employees, found involved in land grabbing is highly commendable.
At the same time, the dubious role of a section of corrupt operators in the garb of property developers, need to be put under the microscope. These people allure and at times coerce private landowners to sell their property to them with offers of various denominations.
These modern and suave land grabbers go about the commercial world in style and remain out of reach of suffering clients. Running after them for full settlement of money often turns into nightmarish ordeal. Sometimes in the case of "legal transfer", the price paid to the helpless owner is only a fraction of the value shown on paper.
One will certainly agree that only punishment as heavy as the proposed one, may help deter thugs wielding ill-gotten power from grabbing land and water bodies of other people. But the question is: how long the enthusiasm of the committee will sustain, especially under threat from the organised gangs having connections at high places?
There is strong perception that if the administration can be made transparent and honest, and if politicians refrain from giving shelter to the grabbers, it would not be difficult for the law-abiding citizens to fight the thugs.
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