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100 'happy-go-lucky' land-grabbers

They occupy 94 acres of government land with fake documents on both sides of the new road from Shilpakala Academy to the BB.

SULTANA RAHMAN
Over 100 land-grabbers occupied 94 acres of government land with fake documents on both sides of the new road from Shilpakala Academy to the Bangladesh Bank.
With the help of some dishonest officials of the Deputy Commissioner's Office, they have unlawfully transferred the plots from public to private ownership, alleged sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Rajuk.
The plots valued at about Tk 60 crore now house a number of high-rises the grabbers built by using the forged documents based on the Cadastral Survey (CS) that dates back to the British rule.
An investigation by Star City revealed that Abdul Motalib, resident of the area, filed a case (No. 30(10) 2002) with Ramna Police Station last year and mentioned that some influential occupiers, including owners of Nakshi Homes, Aftab Dairy Milk and Nagar Chhaya Neer, grabbed the state land.
The case was handed over to the CID and an investigation team has initially found the allegation true and is planning to take action against the accused.
"We have proof that the grabbers fabri-
cated land documents. We found a distinct dissimilarity between the fake documents and official documentation in land records," a CID official said on condition of anonymity.
The outlook of the area has changed over the last few years. The already constructed high-rises apart, at least eight apartment buildings are under construction for which Rajuk said none of them has approval.
Because of unplanned constructions, the road went through bends and curves, creating traffic snarls on the way and in the lanes feeding into it.
The British government in 1875 and 1876 acquired the land for the then Dhaka Municipality. The land accusation case No. 2 was recorded in the Kolkata Gazette (Page 727) in 1875. After completion of the municipality's work, the land was handed over to the Land and Revenue Department in 1909.
The Star City investigation further revealed that the illegal transfer of land ownership from public to private began in 1975, as the grabbers projected one Rabindra Basak as the owner of the land.
SA Khatian, the second land record book, does not have any documentation of the plots. But it was mentioned in a confi-
dential report of the land ministry in 1978 that the government incurred a huge loss because of the fraud some corrupt officials connived in.
During the settlement operation in 1912, the land was recorded in two mouzas -- Kakrail mouza and Ramna mouza. The plots in Kakrail mouza were recorded as government land, but the land in Ramna mouza was wrongly recorded in the name of its old owner and some of his tenants, the sources said.
A parliamentary standing committee asked the land ministry in September to take tough measures, including deploying army if need be, to recover government land from the grabbers.
The committee also asked the ministry to submit a report in 90 days on the illegally occupied government land in six metropolitan cities, including Dhaka.
But the land ministry is learnt to have made no headway in recovering any plot of the grabbed land.
"The recovery of government land is underway," said Land Minister M Shamsul Islam without specifying any development in the ministry's preparation for submitting the report on illegal land occupation before the deadline expires on December 8.