Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury has said that surprise visits to land offices across the country will be increased to prevent corruption.
The land minister made the remarks while addressing a coordination meeting of the divisional commissioners of the land ministry as the chief guest at his secretariat office in the capital on Sunday. Land Secretary Md. Mostafizur Rahman presided over the program.
The land minister said, “We will be stricter in building corruption-free land services. Despite taking so much action at the ministry level, complaints are often coming from land service recipients, which are not expected.”
“If efficient, transparent, people-friendly and accountable land services are not ensured, it will not be possible to implement Bangabandhu’s dream of Sonar Bangla as a whole. Therefore, more stringent measures will be taken to ensure corruption-free land (purchase and selling) services in the national interest,” the land minister said.
The Minister further said that regular ‘counseling’ and ‘refresher training’ of field level officers will be conducted.
He also emphasized on the importance of having a representative of the concerned Divisional Commissioner with the representative of the Ministry of Land during the surprise visit to the Land Office.
Besides, a request letter will be sent to the Cabinet Division to appoint Deputy Commissioners (Collectors) and Divisional Commissioners to inspect the field level survey offices, said Saifuzzaman Chowdhury.
In his speech, the land secretary said, “A plan would be taken to reform the land office on the basis of demand so that the resources could be used properly. No responsibility will be given to the Land Officers promoted from Tehsildar (Union Land Assistant Officer) to Kanungo (Officer of Upazila Land Office under Aceland) without training.”
The departmental commissioners present at the meeting presented various proposals including acquisition of land, giving priority to women in giving land lease, training in large scale corruption as training in case studies, reduction of long-term settled land transfer fee.
The divisional commissioners present at the meeting are - Md. Khalilur Rahman (Dhaka), Md. Kamrul Hasan NDC (Chittagong), Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir (Rajshahi), Md. Ismail Hossain NDC (Khulna), Md. Saiful Hasan Badal (Barisal), Md. Khalilur Rahman (Sylhet), Md. Abdul Wahab Bhuiyan (Rangpur), Md. Shafiqur Reza Biswas (Mymensingh). Besides, senior officials of the ministry were present at the coordination meeting of the divisional commissioners.
