Landless peasants stage rally demanding plantation of Boro in khas land

Our Correspondent | Published: February 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

RAJSHAHI, Feb 12: Several hundred landless peasants of Darusha village under Paba upazila staged a human chain on the bank of Karnahar Borobeel demanding plantation of Boro rice in the khas land of beel areas.
It is learnt, landless peasants living beside the beel villages under Darusha and Karnahar were staging demonstrations for several days demanding their right to transplant Boro paddy saplings there. On Saturday morning, several hundred of them formed a human chain with sticks on their hands when they were challenged by the group headed by former chairman Dewan Rezaul Karim causing tension in the area.
The human chain was attended, among others, by former member of Hujuripara union Magreb Ali, farmer Mainul Islam, Abdur Rahim Chandu, Mijanur Rahman, Meser Uddin, former UP member Masud Rana, President of Landless' Organisation Kasuar Ali, Abdul Aziz, Shahidul Islam, Sadar Rahman, Nabiul Islam, Rabiul Islam, Benu Kumar Mondal, Meser Ali, Badsha Hossain and Mainul Islam.
Speakers at the human chain informed, landless farmers of the surrounding villages were cultivating khas land of Karnahar-Borobeela for last 17 years without any leasing agreement. They want to cultivate Boro paddy on the land this year also. If they fail to cultivate the land within a short time, they would fail to transplant Boro paddy there and the landless farmers of the area will fall in deep crisis.
They further said, the influential rivals of the area have occupied the government land at the beel and were cheating them. They demanded of the local administration to recover the land and to handover those to the real landless peasants, otherwise, they vowed to continue transplanting Boro seedlings on the land as they transplanted during earlier years. They expressed their worry that if there was no solution of the problem as early as possible, water will be accumulated at the low lying area of the beel and they will not be able to transplant Boro paddy there.
According to sources, in question of possession of the khas land of Karnohar-Borobeela, two rival groups of people were in confrontation for a long time. To avoid any escalation of tension between two groups, the government has appointed a receiver there. But, so far no land of the beel has either been leased out or been allocated to the landless farmers. As a result, the tension was continuing in this area. Meanwhile, the time of Boro transplantation was passing away and Boro saplings being grown up, landless farmers organised human chain demanding to allocate land in favour of them.
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