What the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) revealed in its report on Matabari and Rampal power plants again points to the large-scale irregularities in the use of compensation money meant for distribution among the people, including land owners, affected by the public sector development projects. That such irregularities take place at the level of district administration and project officials is an open secret. All concerned are in the know of things. Not to speak of eradicating the irregularities, none has ever made any move at least to reduce the extent of this financial offence.
The TIB report said the people affected by the two power projects are finding it difficult to withdraw the money they have got as compensation from the government. The relevant officials at the district administration allegedly refuse to disburse the compensation money unless the beneficiaries agreed to pay bribes, equivalent to 3.0 to 10 per cent of what they receive as compensation. Moreover, the majority of the people who have filed compensation claims are reportedly not receiving any sympathetic response from the officials concerned. It will surely be unfortunate if anyone genuinely affected by the projects are deprived of due compensation. This unkind act would only make their life more miserable.
However, the TIB has apparently missed one important point. This concerns fraudulence that many compensation-seekers resort to. It is alleged that a large part of the compensation money is shared among a section of unscrupulous officials and fake compensation seekers. Recent media reports have shown how hundreds of tin-shed houses had sprung up overnight along the planned four-lane Dhaka-Mymensingh highway. Local crooks allegedly had reached a secret agreement with the relevant officials to construct such temporary sheds to claim compensation money. So, there are wrong-doers both among the officials and the compensation-seekers.
In fact, irregularities in development projects start with the acquisition of private land and distribution of compensation money among the people affected by such acquisition. When a large development project is taken up, the land offices at upazila and district levels are found buzzing with a big crowd of people who are there either to submit compensation claim or to take delivery of compensation money. No project, which requires acquisition of land, can escape this kind of irregularities.
If the government was serious about containing this particular kind of irregularity it could save a substantial amount from the development expenditures it makes every year. The government, in fact, spends a lot on land acquisition. To keep the expenditure on the lower side it never fixes land prices on par with the prevailing market rates. Thus the people genuinely affected by land acquisition for development projects are not compensated fairly. Had the entire process been clean and graft-free, the government could have easily paid the right amount of compensation to the genuinely affected people. The authorities should try out some measures to make the entire land acquisition and compensation payment a little bit clean for its own sake and for the benefit of the genuinely affected people.
Foul play with compensation money
FE Team | Published: April 19, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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