An indifferent owner

Grabbing government-owned land, be it in urban or in rural areas, has become more of a normal practice in Bangladesh.
Since the government is an indifferent owner, a section of people are always out to grab land that belongs to the state. However, only the powerful people having political connections, in most cases, are involved in the act of land-grabbing.
The poor people are often found occupying the government land. In fact, they are the pawns in the hands of the behind-the-scene powerful quarters. In urban areas, the poor occupiers of government land are required to pay rents to these quarters.
It is natural that in a country where the land-man ratio is one of the lowest in the world, land would be one of the most sought-after items. And under such circumstances, the prices of land would continue to rise.
There is no denying that scarcity, that too in the case of land, would lead to competition, fair and foul. In Bangladesh, the foul competition in grabbing others' land, particularly the same belonging to the government, is very intense. In the recent past, the incidence of unauthorized occupation of the state-owned land has become very high. Newspapers almost regularly carry reports on forcible occupation of government land.
In fact, the government land is a potential source of graft for public officials, unearned income for a section of unscrupulous politicians and vulgar display of muscle power by rogues having political links.
The stories about 'Bhumidassuhus' have got national prominence and most people are aware of the leading 'Bhumidassuhus' of the country and their wealth and power. They have their agents in the administration and many other places who would protect their interests.  
Unfortunately, the presence of Bhumidassuhus has stigmatised the entire real estate sector. Many prominent and reputed businessmen are in the real estate business. They too have to carry the stigma. The unscrupulous land developers usually buy some private land and grab the nearby government-owned or, at times, privately owned land. The private land owners make futile attempts to free the grabbed land through legal means. But the government being an indifferent owner makes no attempt to evict the unauthorised occupiers. In many cases, it is the government officials concerned who extend all help to grabbers to prepare fake documents on land ownership in exchange for money.
The Bangladesh Railway, the Department of Forest, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and the Ministry of Industry or the entities under them own the major part of the government land. Only proper investigations would reveal the areas that have already been grabbed by others. In fact there are instances where some of the government agencies are not even aware of the fact that their lands have been grabbed by others.
Instances are there that the government agencies that distribute residential plots in major cities are not making attempts to handover plots to their rightful and legal owners.
One leading Bengali daily reported on Saturday last on the plight of a number of rightful owners of government plots distributed by the housing authority. Decades have gone by since the government allotted residential plots but the owners are yet to take possession of their plots in the Roopnagar extended housing project at Pallabi, Dhaka. Many lawful owners of these plots have in the meanwhile have expired. Even their successors are not sure whether they would ever be able to enter these plots.
Local politically powerful people have taken possession of a large part of the project and built slums for the floating poor people. They collect a substantial amount every month as rent from the slum dwellers.
Similarly, many lawful owners of government plots could not take possession of their plots in other areas of Mirpur. So-called non-Bengali refugees have been occupying these plots since 1971 and most of them have built multi-storied small but dilapidated pucca structures on these plots. The housing authority has never tried to evict these people or dissuade them from building pucca structures there.
The fact remains that barring a few, the so-called stranded Pakistanis are no more refugees. Following a High Court verdict, most of them are voters and Bangladesh nationals. For more than 43 years they have kept occupied the government land as 'refugees'. Since they have lost that status, they do not have any right to remain on government land and enjoy free water and power supply. However, it remains the responsibility of the government to ensure their proper resettlement.
The state of affairs remains the same with the water bodies the filling-up of which is banned under law. But grabbing of water bodies and wetland has been going on unabated across the country, particularly in and around Dhaka city.
The Bhasantek Beel (swamp), which once used to be considered the largest water body running between Turag River and Kachukhet Bazaar at Dhaka cantonment is a glaring example. The swamp is supposed to be owned by the state. But private housing and multi-storied buildings have sprung up in the middle of the swamp. The link road built through the lake connecting Dhaka and Mirpur cantonments, in fact, has expedited the demise of the lake. There is every doubt whether the organisations called the Rajdhani Unnyan Kartipakkha (RAJUK) and the Department of Environment, which are mandated to protect the water bodies and wetlands, are at all aware of the slow but steady death of the Bhasantek Beel.
[email protected]