The High Court has suggested that the parliament immediately pass a law, which was drafted in 2016, with an eye to preventing unplanned use of agricultural and forest land as well as hills.
The suggestion was made in a verdict delivered by Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil following a writ petition.
The verdict was delivered on 02 June 2022 after declaring illegal a notification issued by the Naogaon revenue deputy collector denying Mizanur Rahman of Manda upazila for excavating a pond in his arable land.
The 15-page verdict, written by Justice Kamal, has been published on the Supreme Court's website recently.
The HC bench said, "In order to prevent the unplanned use of the country's agricultural land, forest land and hills, it's imperative that the draft law prepared in 2016 be passed by parliament as soon as possible."
"If we can do our country's land management properly, we will be able to deal with environmental disasters."
To protect arable land, the government took an initiative in 2009 to enact a law styled 'Agricultural Land Protection and Land Zoning Act 2010'.
In 2015, the title of the draft law was changed to 'Agricultural Land Protection and Land Usage Act 2016'.
The draft was later updated in 2021.
Lastly in 2024, the draft was named 'Land Zoning and Protection Act 2024'. It has been posted on the land ministry's website for vetting.
Mr Rahman from Chokkanu mauza of Manda filed the writ challenging the legality of the revenue deputy collector's denial on 16 April 2019 to excavate a pond on his own farm land.
The collector upheld the union land officer's notification issued on 31 January 2019, asking the farmer to stop the excavation or face legal action as per the 'Balumahal and Soil Management Act 2010'.
The land officer barred Mr Rahman from excavating his farmland, stating that the excavation would cause water stagnation and hamper farming of paddy.
Besides, the local fisheries officer observed that fish could not be farmed by digging ponds in sandy soil.
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