150 acres agri ministry land grabbed in 5 yrs

Jasim Khan | Published: March 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

More than 150 acres of agriculture ministry land across the country have been occupied by grabbers in connivance with some unscrupulous ministry people during the last five years.
These occupied lands belong to 16 divisions and departments under the ministry, a report prepared by the ministry said.
The Horticulture Foundation has lost major portion of lands to the grabbers followed by Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), Seed Certification Agency (SCA), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), according to the report.
Many of the illegal occupiers prepared false documents in favour of their claims on those grabbed lands and filed cases to keep those lands under their occupation.
The lengthy disposal process of land related cases also helped the occupiers maintain their occupation years after years, sources said.
According to the ministry report, one SM Hafiz Ullah got mutation in favour of his possession of 39.40 acres of land at Porabari Horticulture Centre in Gazipur.
The ministry filed a case against the land grabbing bid. A hearing in the court will be held today (Tuesday) in this connection.
In another case, 23.19 acres of land belonging to Department of Agriculture Extension were occupied by some local influential people at Gobindaganj in Gaibandha district.
More than 11 acres of DAE land remain under occupation of local people at East Nasirabad where the ministry has lost relevant documents of the land.
The Central Taskforce headed by agriculture ministry's Additional Secretary Vikharunnessa in a meeting on March 20 last decided to update documents of lost land of the ministry.
The meeting asked the concerned departments to take necessary steps so that the departments can win court cases in lost lands.
A member of the Taskforce said if the ministry conducts a thorough survey on its lost land it would find much more acres of land under illegal occupation.
Many of the regional offices do not disclose their data about lost land because some of the officials are involved in the occupation bid, he said.