In Bangladesh, illegal occupancy of land is a common phenomenon. The political and economic structure of our society is a very demeaning one. When it comes to grabbing lands, dominance of the rich and local influential is a reality beyond any doubt. They use all means of deceptions to occupy khash lands illegally.
The government has already drafted the law titled ‘Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act, 2021’. It has identified about two dozen types of crime related to land.
The draft law states that the main purpose of this law is to stop fraud, deception and loss through forged documents. The draft law aims to alleviate sufferings of people by reducing the delay in civil and criminal cases. Many crimes that are considered civil offences will become criminal offences after the law is enacted.
Measures should be taken to minimize
the influence of the local influential and
officials who exercise corrupt practice
Increasing in land value prior to acquisition, settlement on hill or at the foot of hill without permission, assisting and inciting crime over land and penalty for creating waterlogging are also incorporated in the draft law.
However new laws are not enough to diminish the illegal occupation of khash lands. Strict and consistent administrative monitoring is needed as well. Most of the country’s khash lands like agricultural, non agricultural and water bodies are still unidentified. The government should take more measures to identify them immediately. Information relating to the problems of identification of khash lands should be published in the daily newspapers, telecasted, broadcasted, and the same should be dispersed upto the grass roots level.
More workshops and proper training should be conducted so that land officials become more aware of their duty and restrain from joining hands with the land grabbers. Measures should be taken to minimize the influence of the local influential and officials in the committee who exercise corrupt practice. All in all, for the welfare of our society, developing a well-balanced land management and land distribution system has become the need of the hour.
