Dr Monzur Hossain, Senior Research Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), raised the important issue of land management in Bangladesh at the BIDS Critical Conversation 2016, held on April 23-24. The presentation seemed to be very contextual as Bangladesh has been grappling with the problem of accessing good information on land availability, policy and management.
According to the author, the total area of Bangladesh was 145,778 sq. km in 2010 as against 144,873 sq. km in 1976 and 145,306 sq. km. in 2000. This means, between 1976 and 2010, the overall land gain was 905 km (90,512ha). This is believed to be mainly due to accretion in the southern coastal zone. However, as opposed to this gain, loss of agricultural land was to the tune of 0.66 million ha - from 13.1 million in 1976 to 12.44 million in 2010.
In fact, two issues emerge in the context of the discourse on land. First, conversion of land from agriculture to non-agriculture is an important issue while dealing with land administration and management. Second, Khas land management and distribution is another concern creeping on the heels of lack of official records and consequent loss of substantial amount of khas land. Critics argue that the 'political economy' of khas lands rests mostly on non-availability of records.
Landscape has been changing over time like land conversion. With industrial development, not only labour migrates from agriculture to non-agriculture, but also land shifts from agriculture to non-agricultural pursuits. Arguably, the estimated conversion rate of agricultural land to non-agricultural land differs across studies, and thus produces somewhat confusing statistics. The loss of agricultural land, as reported by different studies, varies between 1.0 per cent and 0.13 per cent per annum. "Despite the differences in the estimated conversion rate of agricultural land to non-agricultural use, this conversion is alarming in respect to the total crop production and food security in Bangladesh. However, the rate of 1.0 per cent conversion does not appear to be correct because in this case, at least one quarter of the country's agricultural land would have been lost since independence. It is more likely that the conversion rate may be much faster in the coming years because of faster economic growth and infrastructure development. The difference in the availability of agricultural land between two important sources is about 0.4 million hectares, which may be due to data collection techniques applied by the institutions."
A more pathetic position prevails in the case of khas land. There is no accurate inventory with the government of available khas land. Drawing on Abul Barakat et al, one could show that there are 3.3 million acres of khas land available in the country comprising as follows: 0.8 million agricultural, 1.7 million non-agricultural, and 0.8 million acre khas water bodies. However, it is being perceived by various stakeholders that the actual area of khas land would be higher than 3.3 million acres. The reasons for such notion are understandably clear as many khas plots were grabbed by local elites and powerful quarters with strong political clout. Regarding distribution of khas land, the researcher reckons that "about 44 per cent of the 0.8 million acres of (identified) agricultural khas land has already been distributed amongst the poor, landless and destitute. The rest are illegally occupied by rich and powerful people. About 56 per cent of the distributed khas land could not be retained by the poor people as it was engulfed by the local influential people. As a result of combined effect of the above two estimates, only 11.5 per cent of the agricultural khas land has been effectively distributed to the landless and poor, and the rest 88.5 per cent is illegally occupied by the rich and powerful.
Coming to the point of land administration, the author argues that the current land administration system is alleged to create numerous disputes. It is mainly due to the fact that there is little or no coordination among Ministries and agencies involved for land management and administration. The whole process is manual, laborious and time-consuming resulting in massive corrupt practices. Conventional methods of land survey, preparation and upgrading of land records, maintenance of all related data for each parcel of land makes land administration and management inadequate and inefficient.
Distortion of land records at various stages (i.e. plot-to-plot survey, preparation of records and drawing of maps through conventional methods, objections, junk/checking works, printing, etc.) hinders land development and property tax collection. Nearly 80 per cent of court cases in rural areas are related to land-related conflicts.
Through a digitised integrated system, land records collected from government agencies, external administrative units and local autonomous bodies can directly go into the integrated database and provide a variety of services like real estate registration system, portal systems for people, kiosks, and mobile services. Second, a well-developed land information system (LIS) is important to facilitate quick capturing, retrieval and querying of different cartographic information. Use of LIS for recording and maintaining the original volume of land records could minimise the chances of tampering of records. Third, LIS encompasses statutory, customary and religious institutions and covers both legal and policy frameworks for land as well as traditional and informal practices that enjoy social legitimacy.
Finally, the National Land Use Policy, 2001 (NLUP) has been an important policy document till now with regard to land use in Bangladesh. While the above detailed objectives appear to promote a sustainable and planned utilisation of land, the policy lacks a plan of action. Though a National Zoning Act and Village Improvement Act were prepared in 2010 in line with the Land Use Policy, these were not yet officially adopted .While the preparation of a nation-wide Land Zoning Map is going on under a project implemented by the Ministry of Land, its progress is very slow. Mapping of about 100 upazilas has been completed by this time and the rest was expected to be finished by 2015.
Given the limitations of the existing NLUP, a revision of the National Land Policy is desirable by outlaying guiding principles on appropriate and sustainable use of specific type of land, sectoral and cross-sectoral land use and environmental management. By and large, the researcher draws attention to the following imperatives in the realm of land administration and land use:
* Revise and update land use policies;
* Digitise and integrate land administration;
* Develop land information system;
* Improve land governance;
* Appropriate land use through land zoning, and
* Develop dispute resolution mechanism by involving NGO and local representatives.
The writer is a former Professor
of Economics at
Jahangirnagar University.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
