There is scarcity of land in Bangladesh. Every bit of land in it needs optimum utilisation. Only recently, the government has taken some steps to devise a land use policy. But how far it is being implemented in earnest is anybody's guess. However, application of a well-conceived policy in this regard has become an imperative. From a lack of zoning policies and their enforcement, limited farmlands are being gobbled up by industries and other enterprises. Accreted lands where the poor or the landless could be settled in large numbers are grabbed by the local powerful people like in the days gone by through force and managing the police and others. The same applies to khaas (government owned) lands and the total size of the khaas lands all over the country is not small or insignificant. From providing lands to the landless to leasing and utilising those productively to yield revenues for the government in different ways, the khhas lands could well be used for public benefits and well being of the poor. But these things are not being done. The khaas lands all over the country have become the happy hunting grounds of politically powerful interest groups, locally powerful groups and other vested interests. Even some real estate developers have grabbed these government-owned lands and consolidated their control over them in the urban areas.
It would be deeply appreciated, if the caretaker government takes hard steps now to evict as widely as possible the grabbers of government lands throughout the country. The caretaker government is not expected to feel restrained in doing this because it is thought to be above the influence of vested interest groups. Not only their eviction, should follow-up measures be taken so that the former occupiers do not find it easy to re-occupy these lands when the tenure of the caretaker government comes to an end.
Nurul Momen
Dhaka University
Ridding khaas land of grabbers
FE Team | Published: August 10, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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