Relief ministry land under illegal occupation

Most of 3,602 acres of land belonging to relief and disaster management ministry is under illegal occupation of influential people in four upazilas of the district due to lack of proper maintenance.

In 1947-1952 period, the then Pakistan government acquired 3,031.83 acres of land in Dimla upazila, 543.10 acres in Sadar upazila, 22.50 acres in Jaldhaka upazila and 4.41 acres in Saidpur upazila to rehabilitate refugees coming from India in face of communal violence there, sources said.

A good number of Indian refugees were given shelter in a small portion of those lands while the rest remained unused till independence of Bangladesh, said Tabibul Islam Ahmed, chairman of Dimla upazila parishad.

"After 1971, a section of unscrupulous people gradually occupied those lands and started handing over possession to others in exchange for money. For this, buyers and sellers usually make unregistered deeds on government stamps," he said.

Some people in collusion with dishonest land officials even made false land ownership documents and sold those through registration in government land offices, sources said.

During the last land survey, some illegal occupants got a large portion of the government lands recorded as private property through bribing officials concerned but no action was taken despite filing of several written allegations to the higher authorities concerned.

The lands are under direct control of government's relief department and project implementation officers (PIO) of the upazilas concerned are to look after them but the PIOs have practically very little to do due to manpower shortage. Besides, they remain busy in development works.

District administration made several attempts to recover the occupied land but those efforts ended in smoke as a section of political and local leaders backed illegal occupants.

During last caretaker government's tenure of 2007-2008, the authorities took a strong initiative to recover the occupied land, but the process discontinued later.

The government can earn a good amount of money if the 3,602-acre government land worth hundreds of crore taka is handled properly, land department sources said.

Sadar upazila parishad Chairman Abu Zar Rahman suggested that the government determine value of the occupied land, realise the prices from those who are in possession and hand it over to them legally.

Expressing concern about the situation, Nilphamari Deputy Commissioner Zakir Hossain said, "None can occupy government land permanently. The administration will recover it if the higher authorities give directives."